Paul,
I will give you my opinion, it makes sense to me and I have used this method successfully for many years. You touched on part of the setup that is important to me, low rotation resistance.
I use a solid pinion spacer [I do not use the factory crush sleeve] Then experiment with shims to have a VERY slight pinion bearing pre-load. Basically just taking the slack out minus a few thousands. It will require taking the pinion in and out a number of times to sneak up on the correct shim pack. As a final step, once you are completely satisfied with the set up, put blue lock-tite on the pinion nut threads.
For side bearing pre-load, again, not much. I use a small, light weight hammer and just tap, tap, tap the side shims in. If I encounter much resistance, take off .002 - .003 thickness and try again. Also, it is important to be rotating the spool/ring gear assemble as the shims are being tapped in. This helps the side bearings become centered in the bearing races.
This link is for Precision Gear
http://www.precisiongear.com/setupkits.htm The specific page shows "set-up bearings" the bearings are honed for a slip fit on the pinion, thus, experimenting with shims is easy. On other pages you will find a solid pinion sleeve kit with shins. These are very helpful tools.
About the pinion depth shim, you will find somewhere between .029 - .033 will give a good pattern with .031 - .032 being a common final shim.
I suggest back lash closer than you mentioned, .005 - .006 range is fine. Rarely do I use more than .006.
Pattern marking grease will help you finalize the set-up. Your manuals may show some acceptable patterns, use those as guide lines.