Just hoping to get a little clearer here.
Hope I'm not being too anal, but it scares me when they say I could damage the transmission if it isn't right...
First - I found another illustration on California Performance Transmission.
https://www.cpttransmission.com/tech_tvcable.htm
I wrote my questions on it in red.
My 3804S carb matches the specs on this chart without the adapter. That's good, I think. Maybe.
I spoke with one of the guys at the California Performance Transmission shop, who said that at least part of the purpose of the adapter is to flatten out the arc so that the cable end doesn't lift up so much at full throttle. I have an Edelbrock here and there is more lift on it than on my Carter3804S.
So, with mine, maybe I'm ok without the adapter?