Exactly! In fact it appears to me that Lu has just disproved his own theory. Lateral C of G is by far the primary determinant of lateral stick displacement.
Sorry about the apparent lack of interest, just started a new job, back in the R22 and R44. With the engines off I confirmed the 72 degree rigging you mentioned. No problems there. People are paying me to fly so I have had little opportunity to spend a lot of time fiddling with the cyclic but have found minimal subjective evidence of progressive right stick displacement.
Flies like I remember it, very fun.
I had asked questions about accident rates by country because I am well aware of the great disparity in total time of instructors south vs. north of the 49th parallel and feel this IS a factor. My current employer has a fleet of 30ish R22's and R44's and all accident here have been directly attributable to wirestrikes, vortex ring, and dumb mistakes (leaving it running on the ground unattended etc).
If I get a chance I will try to pass along more info.
When training ab initio student I always tried to brief as fully as possible prior to flight, pass along controls individually as soon as in level flight, and progress to all controls at the student's pace of learning. It is easy to cover the collective without the student knowing because your hand is hidden by your body, one's feet are always close to the pedals. The cyclic becomes a problem only when trying to instill confidence in a student and the cyclic is left visibly uncovered, then you have a noticeable reaction time to stop dangerous control excursions.
High time students (fixed or some other school) are most dangerous because the tendency is to give them more credit for skills they may not actually have.
Later...