I have been in contact with Chuck Hawley and others at WM as well as The Sailing Foundation, and they agreed that the construction needs improvement. I am convinced they are serious and will continue to work them them. I will let the Spartalk forum know what their final decision is.
FWIW, I have decided that the original knot is a bowline tied as though rotated so one leg of the loop were the standing part. Wierd, huh?
Here is a photo of how I reworked my LIfesling retrieval line:
Here's more detail:
Functional, I think.