Pretty much. It's amazing that a skinny pan car with weird long front arms ended up being the best way to build an F1 car. Especially after people tried IRS, gear diffs, and such.

It would be nice to have the new X12 rear pod, but since we aren't resetting ride ht often on rubber tires, the old pod may be better.

Is anyone trying to remove up and down play in the pods main pivot ball?

Mine has a hair of up and down play, but no side to side or front/back play. So I'm assuming it's fine. And the center pivot plastic parts seem purpose built so that we can't sand them down for a tighter fit.