A dirty rooster?
Not exactly sure what a dirty rooster is, does it slow you down...or if not who cares? If your "dirty" rooster slows you down then a bad thing, depending on your rooster show vs jet boat performance goals. So also an excessively high rooster for show at expense of performance may slow you down, dirty or no.
Performance aside, one thing I'd question for rooster tail cohesiveness is nozzle exit flow rotation. You've changed exit flow path components between your signature shot and recent, could any of those changes affect nozzle exit flow rotation?
jer