Can of worms indeed FBinNY. I have rotated the FD every which way, looking at the cage's relationship to the chainrings mostly, but also the cage's relationship to the crank arm (is the crank arm striking the back of the cage or the front?) I feel like I've got the cage aligned pretty damn well at this point. I've been on two short (5 mile) rides and I can't help but stare at the new (old) cranks and the FD cage as I spin.

I addressed getting the FD as low as possible - it's got 1mm of clearance between the inner side of the cage and the middle ring (when shifted to the big ring).

Also I thought that cassette spacing and chains have become narrower as modern "technology" moves towards 9, 10, and even 11 gears in the back.

I'm not sure what you mean by "angle" though, unless you mean the angle/rotation of the FD. I will take my drywall square and lay it out on from the big ring to the cassette now and report my results: the outer edge of the CHAIN on the big ring hits the 5th cog in back. So the outer edge of the big ring and not the chain ought to hit between 4th and 5th gears in the back - right about in the middle.