I am going to be making a set of shims to fine tune the ride height in the rear and see how that works. I can do those cheaper than the urethane isolators. Reports say there isn't a noticeable change in ride height.
I think your conclusion that there is something different with the model years is probably valid. However, I do have an interesting story that nobody has been able to solve. My dad's 1985 Saleen Mustang sat nose high on lowering springs. He added a set of Ford Motorsports springs and it still sat high, so he had a coil or so removed to level the car out. The ride wasn't great, so he swapping in some Eibach springs. Again, the car sat nose high. Cut the coils down and the car sat level. I took his old Ford Motorsports springs and put them on my 1984 Mustang and the front sat scary low. It sat way too low with the 2.3L engine and even lower when I installed the 302. The K-members, control arms, and front structure were the same between the cars, yet his car always sat nose high with lowering springs. Nobody could ever make sense of it.