Hey Love Doctor, I can empathise, we had a fleet of 210s and one of them did that to me one day, clawing around a circuit with no abnormal indications is no fun at all is it.
Its been years now but I remember being able to drag 210s into the air with takeoff power and full backstick, they get airborne with no real ASI reading then you would let them accelerate in ground effect, all the high wing Cessnas will do it. I cant remember if the stall horn was going off then, I guess it must have. In any event I don't think you used less runway, it just got u off the ground quickly.