Good fo r you I am glad you got such a gain.
But the point we are after here is not performance but tough start warm. Up the compression here and it won't be a tough start warm, it just plain won't do it.
Get the the timing where it belongs and he will be be fine. He has already provent that backing it of help and that he already said he checkt totoal at TDC at 35, you should know that with out the distributor locked and retard or ignition kill switch to use while starting that that will not work. As for pwerformance, I wouldn't doubt seeing less timing result in better ET's. I know of several that this has happened to. In fact I went from 35 to 32 and gained well over a tenth on the average.