throwout bearing to fingers gap?

I would look really closely at all the linkage, while a helper steps on the clutch pedal over and over again. There may be unwanted "play" in the linkage due to wear, bad parts, bad geometry, improper assembly, whatever. Extra "play" translates into wasted motion which means abnormal or inefficient clutch application.
Bad geometry may be a result of bad alignment of the pivot "balls", bent z-bar levers, cracked lever welds, whatever.