Ian, I agree with all the points you made; however, your second point about toe changing, I should have been more clear as I was referring specifically to the picture above with the toe link not attached to the shimmed bracket, but point well taken about vertical load stiffness.

Also, to answer your question in your 3rd point, it was a retort to the post about putting the shims under the top bracket instead of the bottom bracket. The reason I don't think this is a valid argument to say that this assembly was done poorly is because both brackets are there for a reason, you may need to shim in either direction. Of course if your relative geometry works out perfectly then yeah you would only need to shim the intended side but shimming either side with their setup doesn't make a difference either way except in the direction their camber changes because of the point above about the toe link not being part of the shimmed assembly.

Hope that clears things up.

Steve