JustJames

Of course if you pull the line slowly, you would feel more resistance and a little jerkiness from clicking pin gilded along the groove not drag pressure . This will not happen in real world fishing, once the fish taking drag, line would get out smoothly not out and stop and out (jerky motion). This system a little bit different than spinning, where zillion sv tw using spring loaded pin to push out into groove at all time. You might be able to tame the jerkiness with a little lubricant on the clicking drag system.
 
It is special reel ??? or I would say magic of digital world.

And yet again I lost the battle with that bait monkey. Just got myself a nice core 50mg7, don’t know why since I have reels those size like 6-7 reels already. I guess my golf launch monitor/simulator have to wait a little longer ???

For your piece of mind. I checked Stradic FL and they do have gap as well. The Vanford is just Stradic FL with different body material. The sleeve and washer is there to prevent water get into the body.
Here is a trick if that annoy you. You can remove the sleeve and see how thick is your washer. You can reduce the gap by getting thinner one.
 
Washer removed and no gap. Remember you need a little bit of gap so the handle doesn’t rub the body when spin.
 
 

You might already got good answers from @bulldog1935 
Now my take on this subject and no I don’t claim to be an expert just a guy used to be in your shoes once.
First of all, I would have two setups, creek short, easy to handle and portable, pond as long as you can for maximizing distance. 
Secondly, 1/32oz lure? What kind of lure? true/total weight at 1/32oz? If total weight 1/32oz that gonna be hard on UL rod to get good distance. You might have to go down all the way to SUL, XUL type rod lure rated down to 1/64oz or lower.
Other things that would help in casting distance especially for super light weight lures is line. 10lb braid is quite heavy for 1/32oz lure to have energy to pull out line for long distance. You might have to go down to 4 or 6lb braid to see some improvement or special line like Nanofil/Nanobraid.
 
 

For curado i you need to oil the brake drum/red brake blocks very more often to get rid of those vibrations noise (just use Q-tip and clean around brass drum and red brake blocks on spool). If you want another 200 series then The Tranx 200 will perform just as good and a little more comfortable to palm. The 200i though very smooth after all these years and abusive. BTW those red brake blocks got replaced right after i series with white one with less noise (aldebaran 50), then the SVS infinity current one in all Shimanos. I
 

As far as I know there are only 2 Tatula model, the OG and new cork model 2018?, except Tatula XT  (stay the same since first came out) and new Tatula Elite rod and AGS. The Tatula elite get update a little in recent year with new size add. The OG Tatula # start with  “TAT” the 2018 is “TTU”. 
 
 

Thanks everyone, I did considered all you guys mentioned here, especially Aqua bound Stingray fiberglass 90 bucks and bending branches angler classic 120 bucks even Werner Skagit. Yes I still have Pescador pro 100 but as I said I haven’t use it a lot only once or twice a this year. I considered a lot of pros and cons, wasn’t gonna get Carlisle Magis Plus due to its weight at 40oz compare to others 30-34oz but with price tag at 60 and too lazy to shop on Black Friday. I ended up order Carlisle 230cm today. If I use it a lot next season I might consider upgrade along the line.