Update:
COVID-19 allowed me some time to readdress the front end set up of this one-off wonder.
I stripped the forks down to the component parts and experimented again with turning the blades around. I noticed ‘G’ and ‘D’ stamped into the dropouts which I took as gauche and droit as the blades are aluminium under the carbon Kevlar wrap, meaning they were most likely from an early french road bike. These are now on their correct sides respectively and the set up works well in this new configuration, aside from the cable angle to the brake armature.
It functions fine and I thoroughly enjoyed the short shake down test ride.
The bike looks more conventional now and I don’t feel such a Pratt riding it lol!