I totally agree and haven't seen many that appear ok at all. I am working now on lengthening my new cam with a home made hard spacer and raising/shimming the drive gear as we speak. And, I have a solid flat tappet lifter dang near hanging off the edge of a cam lobe on this one. I also have the need to use a adjustable rotor for the Distributor. All top quality brands too. I've been a machinist etc. all of my working career and tend to see these anomalies easily by eye at first before getting out the micrometers. I can't imagine not checking this area in a engine.
Lengthening the cam = spacing it forward? That's interesting. Have you compared the gear location to another cam?
Also, I'm sure you noticed but you'll need to shim the crank gear as well. I had to do this on mine and I didn't even space the upper gear out. I used pinion shims.
