crab- thanks for the reply.
I guess I have a different notion of what the term "coning" implies. I was considering what "cone angle" means with regards to the current hingeless/bearingless/rigid rotor configurations. These rotors all have a fixed, defined cone angle designed into the hub/blade attachment, and this cone angle does not change during operation. The only change in the out-of-plane displacement of these blades is that resulting from bending in the blade structure itself. These types of rotors use a few degrees of cone angle to orient the operating longitudinal load vector of the blade normal to the hub attachment structure, thus reducing dynamic stress levels.
Obviously the situation is different with older rotor designs that use a flap hinge, as you noted. So the correct answer seems to depend upon what type of rotor is being considered.