The point of wiring fasteners is to prevent them from becoming loose. If as you say it requires more force to “break” the wire if attached on the “nut” portion of the spinner instead of the end of the ear, how can the “Authentic” way be a better safety?
To quote you Scott... ???
That is not what I said at all. Totally the opposite in fact. Read it again.
I said it would be much harder to hold it at the nut end if it was trying to come undone. i.e. To take it to extremes, if the same torque was applied to the spinner, the lock wire at the nut end would break before the lock wire at the tip.
To put it another way, much less force is required to keep the spinner done up by holding it at the tip than at the nut end.
The angle of installation you mention purely depends upon where you have the hole in the rim, or which spoke you loop the wire round, in relation to the ear of the spinner. For instance, in the pictures that you are referring to, Clayton's is almost immediately underneath the spinner ear, which would, possibly, allow the spinner to loosen slightly, whilst both Tim's and Dave's are one spoke back allowing no movement. But they would all prevent it coming undone, which is surely what we want?