Unbelievably, my 'new' fuel filter was the loss of power culprit. The new (aftermarket, in-line) one has a smaller reservoir and the in/out connections are a bit more constrictive, so I put the stock one back in. Sure enough, my loss of power problem is resolved. Go figure as this didn't happen with my stock ignition. But, finally, my occasional starting problem, occasional hesitation (that was an intermittent battery short due to the positive battery connection occasionally shorting to ground because of warn insulation), ping (the magic numbers seem to be 36 deg. BTC, curve #4) and loss of power above 5K RPM (restricted/smaller fuel filter) seem to be resolved. Which of course means that with everything finally fixed, it's surely going to either blow up or crash.