LA360 initial timing too high - are there different timing covers?

Are those pics current or archived?
What does the second pic attempt to show?
You can put the dizzy in a bazzillion different ways and make it run. Well maybe not quite a bazzillion, but at least 8. It's just common practice to put it in where the factory puts it, cuz then the wires are where the mechanics expect to find them.It is possible to put the reluctor on the wrong way, but then the rotor tip ends up in never-never land.
It is very difficult to verify dot-to-dot withe the gears installed. It requires you to estimate the centers of the cam and the crank, and then imagine a straight line connecting those imagined centers and the two dots. This is hard enough to do on the bench, never mind in the chassis.
There is no cam I have ever installed up to the 292/292/508 that I couldn't make idle at 5*advance.Key-word is make.
IMO, there is no cam I have ever installed,in a stick-car,that I didn't like far less than most guys will tell you to run. I like to run my 230*@050 Hughes HFT at 14/16initial.. It likes 32/34 for WOT, sometime after 3200 on 87E10, and it likes 45/55 at cruise. I give it what it likes, rather than forcing her to take what I might think she should be able to handle. Overlap has nothing to do with ignition timing, as it concerns street cams.
But the camshaft split overlap period should occur very near to TDC on the balancer ,very rarely retarded, and usually up to 6 or 8* advanced.