Did you ever read that FAA safety wire guide they put out a few years back? I came across it when I was trying to settle an argument with a guy at my hangar and it basically said what you found out, that even spacing and no nicks matters way more than how fast you get it done. The whole point is the wire has to hold tension without cutting into the bolt head, and if you rush it you get kinks and stretched spots that look fine until they don't. Old timers learned fast because they were getting paid by the job, but fast and right aren't the same thing. Honestly if your inspector smiled, that's about as good as it gets in this line of work. Did the crew ever come around once they saw your work held up?

Low front bumpers are the worst for this, my old Jetta scraped every single time until I started doing the block trick too. The trick is you gotta raise the trailer tongue so the ramps sit flatter, which sounds like exactly what that guy showed you. Longer ramps help a ton if you ever rent again, the short U-Haul ones are brutal on anything that sits low.