@larryi Thanks for even more clarification - I was struggling a bit about the azimuth being thrown off but also concluded that it would have to be very minute.
While the overhang for a different alignment scheme would result in a different angle of the cartridge that would not have the cantilever of the cartridge perpendicular to the axis of the vertical bearing of the arm
This really brought it home for me and now it's clear why the manufacturer would list the null points in the tonearm specs 💡
I don't know if it's just psycho-acoustics or reality, but when I switched back the alignment from Lofgren B to use the manufacturer's null points (virtually Baerwald), the soundstage magic returned...