I do not know if it worked - the site came out of the sandbox ... but I had been putting a lot of other work into the site and it may just have just been a "time" thing and nothing to do with what I did.

I think the key point is, Google really forced me (and I assume a lot of others) into such "borderline" tactics to find a way out of the sandbox --- sort of counterproductive for them...

BTW - the site is now "kicking ass" and competitors are "dead meat" because of all the effort I had to put into it.

CBP