Variable hydraulic lifters for 440 engine

I had a re-read some history, i had opened a topic before on FBBO on setting up my Holley 770 Street avenger where i found some details and settings of that time.
So below readings is what i had then, but at the time the camshaft was advanced 14*! crank degrees by having the dots to be off 1 tooth on the cam drive sprocket.

Idle rpm: 950 rpm. (Now: 750 rpm)
Vacuum: 10.0" Hg (drops to 5-5.5" when in gear with a big rpm drop). (Now: 6" Hg, less rpm drop)
Idle AFR reading: 15.0-15.5. (Now: 13.0) (Don't think about the actual number, it is only telling me it runs more rich now than before)
Initial advance: 20*. (Now 12*)
Mech advance: 18* all-in at 2500 rpm. (Now: 18* all-in at 3300 rpm)
No V-can attached. (Now: Still not in use)

The written in blue above is in its current state.

But boy did it run!! Burning tires all the time, this thing did not need any brake to stay stationary for making a burnout. Although that is fun, the normal driving and MPG suffered big time and want to be somewhere in the middle.
Plugs were black with soot and i was quite sure there was a leak in the fuel tank somewhere. :D
Oh, and idle quality was not good, engine was excessively shaking, and in gear it is always about to stall.
But with using the same PCV as i am using now, that would have went to WOT mode as soon as i put it in Drive, severely leaning out the mixture and caused the poor idle in gear.
(This is probably why the engine had no PCV when i bought it)
Another problem i had there was a very rich cruising of 11.0 AFR, hit it and it would go to 12.5-13.0.
But the rich cruise was caused by too much fuel coming from the mixture screws for the amount of air passing the throttle, and with the PCV valve in normal mode by then, due to higher vacuum, not allowing all that additional air in anymore and richened it up.
Tried V-can at the time, which brought in 5* advance at idle so i backed off the initial timing to maintain 20* but i noticed detonation at light throttle.
Things that were fundamentally wrong there were things i was not aware of at the time, just now looking back i understand why!

Comparing the 2 situations, i can see that with the camshaft advanced (too far though) i still would likely have ended up the same as i am now.
Because at that time to get the idle down i would have had to reduce the advance, which in effect would have dropped the vacuum as well.
Also would have had to fatten up the idle mixture to 1 - 1-1/2 turns on the mixture screws, which at that time were around 3/4 turn to make it idle stronger with a richer mixture to avoid too much rpm drop.
I believe at that time the PCV was giving me the headache as well as it did now.

I am sure the camshaft is installed as intended, the TDC indicator on the balancer i had also checked and found spot-on.
If i had to advance the cam again, i could only use the advance slot in the crank sprocket, which i think is 4* advance.
This would bring the ICA from 68* to 64*, so with that i will be indeed near 168 PSI again as i am at 160-ish at the moment.

Regarding the TC, yes it beats me as well.
When the engine is just running and the tranny is still cold, it can be put in gear and it will not move at all.
Maybe after a bit it will start moving slowly.
But once at operating temperature it will drive off straight without giving any throttle.
Could this be a tight converter with high stall? Sounds more a converter for a tow truck to be honest.