I've been tinkering with this bike for a while and while I think i'm close there's a couple things that are throwing me off that I could use some advice on.

Bike is a 1995 Giant Iguana that I am using as a commuter/go fastish bike. For the next 3 months it's the only bike I have. I have two different road bikes and a mountain bike at home that i'm not having issues with, but those are thousands of miles away and of not much help.

I've been fighting knee pain issues that have been pretty much resolved by raising the saddle about 2" above where I started at and moving the saddle back almost to the max reach. I've been using a couple different WTB saddles and just started using a WTB Silverado that is the same as the one I am using on my mountain bike with no problems.

The issue I am facing is that on this bike, in order to not slide forward on the saddle, I have to angle it up to about 6 degrees. Basically the back half of the saddle is flat and the front half climbs sharply. It's comfortable for riding however I do feel mild pressure on the soft tissues. I'm also a bit concerned that the setup on this bike is departing from the other bikes I have, which do have an upwards angle, but only by a couple degrees or so.

Could I get some thoughts on this setup? It's comfortable for riding but it seems far enough off from my setup on the other bikes that I can't help but wonder if i'm missing something on this one.

is the knee pain sharp? or a dull aching pain?

i have had issues like that in the past. dull aching pain turned out to be the seat was too high and i had to lower it.

recently i've been tinkering with my set up as well. i've been falling forward in my saddle too but it is flat (parallel to the ground) to get rid of this, i pushed the saddle in slightly toward my handlebars so i'm sitting on the saddle. it's a lot more comfortable for me. but i missed the sweet spot at least 3-4 times and had to keep pushing it back and forth. finally i got the sweet spot after all those tries. i don't know if this is your issue though.

Saddle is Too High.

Drop it 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch.

Yeah, you probably could drop the saddle 1/4", but I don't think that will affect the problem. The bike looks too small for you, but that's not really the problem, either. With your symptom, I move the saddle back. If you're at the limit of travel now, you can go further back with a seatpost with more setback.
Seatposts - Components

Knee pain gets worse when I lower the saddle, strangely enough they feel best when my legs almost feel overextended. Front and outside of knee pain, i've been doing stretching exercises as well to ensure it's not IT band issues.

I've been starting to think the bike is too small also, it's a 22" frame, the largest they made back in the day, but I've never felt that comfortable on it. I think it might get relegated to wall-hanger status once I get home. I outsmarted myself on this trip, shoulda brought my touring bike.

Yeah, front and outside = raise the saddle. Outside also means your VMO is weak and/or not firing at the right moment. Here's what I know about that:
https://www.bikeforums.net/training-n...l#post16081392

Based on your position in picture 2 and the fact that you need to angle your saddle back to keep from sliding forward, your saddle is too far back. With your pedal in the 3 o'clock position, like in pic 2, your knee should be roughly over the pedal spindle. You can check this by dropping a plumb bob from right under the knee cap, the soft part right under the knee cap, down through the pedal. You will probably be a little behind that because the frame looks to be a bit small for you.

You can follow these fitting instructions to get a rough fit: How to Fit a Bicycle.

Doc V
I owe you a beer. I've been stuck on having to have the saddle all the way back, it didn't even occur to me to try moving the saddle forward. Leveled it off, moved the saddle forward an inch, raised the seatpost about a quarter inch. It feels significantly better. Thanks, I really appreciate the input.