Hi guys.
Crab, I'm not saying the CofG is irrelevant - being one of the points where a force is applied, where it is will make a big difference to the end result.
If, as you say, the CofG was inconveniently to the port side, it would become part of a pro-roll couple. The aircraft would roll until it had gone far enough for the CofG to swing starboard enough to revert back to anti-roll, ie had passed under the mast head and out the other side.
It'd keep going until the lift-weight couple was big enough to equal the pro-roll one.
Whether the CofG would have been within limits in the first place in this scenario is a question for design engineers, which I'm definitely not one of.
The R22, like anything, will hang in equilibrium when all force couples are balanced. Not a great deal of torque to spin that rotor, comparitively speaking, so not heaps of anti-torque required, so my guess there is that the smallish side force from the tail rotor and proportionally small cyclic tilt needed would mean that couple wouldn't be huge in the first place.
Lifting, I see your point about the theoretical vs. reality significance of this effect - and hopefully they'll get Uncle Bert out of the trunk before he starts to stink too much!