I'd guess that any binding you had in the original BB might be more to do with a faulty spindle or cups (but you say they looked good) or the threading of the BB shell. Having good parallel flat surfaces on the BB shell is really only a factor in getting a good tight fit for the conventional fixed cup and the lockring: if the threads were not cut accurately (on-axis), a well-faced shell will do nothing to straighten them out. Good tight fit IS important with a FR or Ital BB, and the conventional wisdom is that an "open" BB allows for more slight misalignment that a sealed unit.
If you had no binding with the sealed unit then I'd look at the old one (and probably the spindle) as the culprit...and if you run sealed units like a Shimano, the facing need only be done on the fixed side, run a Phil-type BB and it doesn't have to be faced at all.

Oh well, Thrill Bikes beat me to it on some of this, but we both agree^