Chuck,
Well done getting thru whatever it was you had going on.
I cant speak for why Mr Maule and several guys on the Maule forum who specify 3 pointers as opposed to wheelers but from a personal perspective I would like to throw out why I assume they think this way.
Again taking into account my limited TW experience, i would greatly appreciate if you could pick apart my theory as to why i believe 3 pointers are superior over wheelers in the Maule hopefully it will be learning curve for me.
Firstly, you said
the reason it was easier to wheel land it rather than three point it was due to the design of the airplane the rudders had degraded effectiveness in the three point high alfa flight range making for tricky directional control compared to wheeling it on...
Now i understand the concept but inst this kicking the problem down the road a bit due to as you slow up your tail is still in the air as opposed to a 3P where you plant that tail hard on the deck and pin it there with full back elevator essentially trading directional control via airspeed on the rudder to control via ground friction. the principle being once authority recedes the friction takes over the directional control
Secondly, I have looked at planes of similar utility to the Maule like the Husky etc, and I think the Maule has a far larger tail side profile which in a wheel landing right at the point where the tail is about to drop you have lost significant authority and still have this large surface sitting up there which will pivot on the mains a lot easier without ground friction of a 3P, granted if the wind is strong enough to swing you round regardless of which landing method is used it will happen at a slower speed in a wheeler.
In my particular case my home strip is appx 1600ft with obstructions at both ends and in conditions where there is significant x wind I am just not comfortable holding the extra speed necessary for a wheeler