I guess I should have Googled my Googling. The screws that were missing on Freddie were those holes circled in RED, whereas the ones they say to leave out are those holes circled in Yellow. So I will pull the carburetor and verify what is really exposed. And, as you can see, the ones in RED are right in the vacuum paths and may have (I suppose) allowed for some vacuum leaks, or worse. Will need to study that more.

Image off Internet, not Freddie's.

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