You and peepee might wanna have this conversation with the unirig guys, like Curry or Hodges, but here goes:

I'm just trying to understand how:
one "get upwind faster"
by
"lower you point."
'cause
pointing lower
takes you AWAY from the mark... ?!?


Like I suggest above, I'm sure a better explanation will be forthcoming when the Acat guys get done but here goes:

At high angles of attack (eg upwind/high on the wind), the jib, with its comparatively inefficient foilshape, creates more drag than it creates lift. In an ideal world, whenever you go upwind, you'd want to furl your jib and add that sail area to your main, making the main really high-aspect, like Acat, 18sq or other unirig sails (Ccat too). Of course that only will work in the movies ;-)

The jib is also not able to direct flow across the lee side of the main efficiently when at high angles of attack.

Raking back will prolly help some, but not much, and you'll pay for it downwind, so you have to strike some sort of balance there. Raking back will also cause helm imbalance because it changes the center of effort of the sails. So be prepared to reangle your rudders.