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I have only played on a few of these, but I have never had to hold the horn at a 45 degree angle to myself. There is some angle, but I have never had to have that much.

Mine does so dictate. Or at least at an angle. I'm not sure it's fully 45 degrees, but an angle anyway, reminiscent of old Conns. You can judge the angle for yourself before long, as it is on my agenda to bring it to you to align some of the slides. This does not bother me, it was just unexpected. I actually kind of like the angle, ergonomically. But I might also like it being straight on, which is what I expected.

The raised leadpipe is not helping that situation

Joe,
It sounds like you found a particularly different one. Sometimes the differences between hand assembled instruments (German, American, Swiss, or Chinese are all soldered up by hand.) is not subtle. But hey, there may be a person out there that likes that leadpipe angle better than the angles that you like.

Meh, it worked alright for this guy.