My experience is that there is a small hump (maybe what you're calling "ramp up abruptly to pretty tight") in torque as you mesh the splines (and I always mesh them by feel, but others may be more visually oriented). Then several turns before the splines bottom, then a fast ramp - maybe 1/4 turn? I see no reason to aim for the high end of the spec; the hump isn't anywhere near the spec ... unless you haven't meshed them correctly. But that should be obvious.