Dear @lewm : My toughts about that headshell and damping issues are trying to understand why with that calculated ( wbf ) " huge " angle error you like it.
So with the usual headshell and Löfgren A/B real alignment a comparison could tell us or put some " light " why you and other audiophiles like it. With out this kind of comparison we just almost never know for sure. Common sense tells me that with a normal alignment will like you even more and then the overall VIV damping could be what helps a lot for better quality performance.
I think that when you have the time can be interesting wich changes in the sound makes with out O rings, here too common sense says will be a quality changes and the one that can tell us is you.
Well, only my thoughts,
R.