I have driven so long with my old cheetah valve body I am afraid to go LBA. I am bad about dropping it into first as I slow down and just rolling up to the stoplight or whatever. If I ever swap to a low band apply I will probably eat steering wheel a few times until i get retrained.
The factory got it right on this. It could be argued that the purpose of the band apply in Low is to provide engine braking--when needed. It also protects the over-running clutch when pulling a boat out of the water or tugging on a stump. No engine braking in first is normally a good thing. My first car was a police car (383hp B-body) that would down shift to first when coming to a stop (10mph?)--and you could feel it. It drew a lot of comments and I've never had another transmission that would do that. I traded it for a Charger before ever trying to figure out what was different. You could feel that it was ready for you to stab the throttle if you wanted/needed to. It might not take more than a drill bit to tie the rear servo to first gear in Drive-Breakaway, to use the FSM language. If you want spilled drinks in your interior.
