To: Try_Cyclic
You are trying to fit the situation to the picture but it doesn't work that way. It is like taking one frame out of a movie film strip and saying this is what happens or, happened.
If the pilot pulled the stick back to position the swashplate as in the picture then an instant later, picture number two would look just like picture number one.
Regarding the underslinging of a rotor head, this is done not to minimize leading and laging, it is done to minimize spanwise bending of the blade. Under ideal conditions a rotor blade is designed so that the aerodynamic center and the chordwise CG are coincident with the pitch change axis.
That is why they have adjustable weights in the blade tip. The weights serve two purposes. One is to establish spanwise balance so that the spanwise CG or, center of blade mass is the same for all blades of a given type. The second purpose is to get the chordwise CG and the aerodynamic center as close as possible if not coincident with each other as well as to the pitch change axis.
Since the three points are not always coincident with each other there is some spanwise bending. This bending is caused by the tip of the blade moving relative to the root in order to get the points in alignment.
On older helicopters before they perfected the building and static and dynamic balancing of blades the design incorporated a drag link in the case of Bell to anchor the blade in a rigid position.
On Sikorsky blades they had internal stiffeners in the spar and the inboard pockets were attached to each other by a trailing edge strap. Even though the Sikorsky blades were free to lead and lag the tendency to bend spanwise was still there independent of the lead lag.
------------------
The Cat