I heard about injecting brake cleaner in tractor puller... loll, but I never tested in my car... probably a rumor, I dont know.
Jimfoo, you have now good experience with M-pump and the answer is in some post here, but.....
Adding lift on came plate that change nothing, euuhh... yes and no, It's complicated to explain, but it's not your entire problem.
More aggressive slope on the cam without other modification that affect the fueling amount, more movement is needed from the control collar to obtain the same fueling as with the previous soft came plate, but you get the fueling in shorter time with aggressive came.
More aggressive came create more counter force on the carrier roller,( exponential as the rpm goes up), more pump case pressure is required to move the timing piston, extra came lift have a little effect in this way too, like adding more shim on timing piston, or bigger head plunger, or playing with the fuel screw also affect the counter force, etc....
I think the biggest problem is that you play with the wrong regulator, not the entire regulator, but the spring in it.
Always set the pump timing at 1mm with dial gauge and weld it in place.. loll..!! It's a joke, but 1mm.... and fine tune only with different combination of regulator (spring in it) no need to monitor the pump pressure, It's a waste of time and that say nothing on the timing position.
A good timing value for M-TDI is 3-4-5deg at idle to 15-18 deg at around 4500rpm, your regulator give the correct pressure for a correct timing at idle, and not enough pressure to get 15-18deg at 4500, you have probably 8-10 deg at 4500rpm, and if you tap too much on the regulator, you get too much timing at idle and lower rpm range for what you want in the high rpm range, you have to put a harder spring in the regulator, to keep the same pressure (timing) at low rpm and more pressure (timing) at high rpm.
I think I already explain how the two spring timing piston work, It's easy, the small spring in the centre is attached to a small regulator in the timing piston, and the pump pressure act directly on this regulator to bleed more or less pressure behind the timing piston, this type of timing piston are less affected by the carrier roller counter force, also less piston oscillation when the pump rotate.
A good control collar lever would not be a luxury............