I agree with everything in your post except your history of the Winglet is a bit revisionist.
When the company was announced and a picture of the Winglet CAD posted, Garrett noted that due to the 90° angle there would be string catching on the response bump:
This advice was not taken into account for the first production run and the sharply angled response bump was left as-is:
Then, as expected, people experienced string catching on the response bump leading to a clicking sound and feeling. This is just one sample of someone who experienced it. yoyojoe1 also noted it in their review and I had a first run Winglet and experienced it as well; it was fairly annoying tbh and one of the major reasons I ended up listing mine on the BST (along with my preferences shifting more towards organic throws)
It wasn’t until the Winglet SE and second run of the 6061 Winglet that this was addressed, after the full first production run had gone out to consumers. It’s unfortunate because this flaw was noted early on and pointed out before machining had begun, yet the advice about it was ignored when it could have been prevented entirely.
It was eventually addressed though. And I have to say that the wood stand it ships in is really quite nifty. And aside from the string clicking it was a very smooth and stable yo-yo.