[scooder]

I think the key is what's inside the insulation. Spiral wound is the hot shoe I believe. Though I won't be surprised if I'm behind the times on this. Not really about shorting out. It's all about induction, the ability for your spark to start running down one lead and then sodding of to the next lead that easyer for it to spark from. Compression makes it harder to spark. So next lead ain't got all that compression at the end of it, so it sparks here. The worst setup for this is solid copper leads that travel along nice and tidy bunched together. Sound familiar? In this respect I think the stainless ones you mentioned are probably a little bit better than the stock flathead ones.
I seen the power go up a tickle on a dyno, when the leads were pulled away from each other.
Also on small block Ford engines, if you seperate the back two leads on the drivers side (if my memory is working) with the engine idling, you can hear the rpm go up, and see a tad more vacuum on a gauge, with solid copper and cheap carbon string resistance leads.
That's the theory, In practice these little old flatheads spuddle along nicely thank you very much, with there stock set up, and will do the same with these shiny ones.
Ideal? Not really.
induction miss fire? Probably a wee bit.
Look good? Your opinion.
Martin.