Thanks so much for posting this. I'm going to share it with my team.
I think I found a typo in section 2.0. You wrote "Mode “A” (RUN_WITHOUT_ENCODERS) produced the least predictable and consistent results. The MATRIX motor has an initial dead-band," but I think you meant "Tetrix motor". This confused me for a brief second because there is a
new legal ModernRobotics / Matrix motor.
The most disappointing part was the clipping of speed to 78% with the new controller and NeveRest motors. I was looking forward to the new controllers because I thought this was sure to be fixed.