[Lee]

Working the scratch progressively wider will in fact give you results that appear distortion free from a 45-90 degree angle, go to a 10-45 degree angle and you will see distortion, but fortunately we don't look through our WS at that angle. (quote)

I completely agree with you on this. It appears to be distortion free but it is still distorted.

This is from your link.

When the polishing powder is applied to glass, it reacts with the surface to produce a complex cerium-oxygen-silicon compound softer than glass. This softer surface layer can then be more easily applied to produce the final polished surface. As polishing is the final step in the surfacing process, it should not be expected to remove errors made during previous steps when the shape is formed and smoothed. It is therefore necessary that both previous steps, beveling and smoothing are done correctly and accurately

It says absolutely nothing about microscopic moving of molecules. Also cerium oxide is the last step in the beveling process and as stated is not for removing errors of the previous steps. Now how do we get a cerium-oxide-silicon compound, we grind the glass with cerium-oxide to remove silicone. When you remove material you get distortion as you have said.
There is no such thing as a Distortion Free System. It should be called a Least Distortion System Subject to Operators Expertise.
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