Left handed...

Due to excessive pain from years of cracking my knuckles, I had to switch 2 years ago to what I believe is excessive reverse in my grip. Currently I'm 1/2 in middle and 5/8 in ring. I also have 1/4 reverse in thumb. My driller recently suggested that I could actually go with 1/8 forward in the thumb. I'm trying it right now with initially positive results. I am thinking of backing off 1/8 to zero and making an additional change by coming forward in the fingers so that I can try to increase my rev rate.

I suppose the first thing I could try is changing my finger inserts to one quarter under as a test. I have been pain free for 18 months and do not want to re-injure my fingers, but the new layout feels fine and I am definitely coming out of the ball more cleanly. If I could get the rev rate back up, life would be good. I have not made a span change in conjunction with the thumb change and everything still feels comfortable, however I'm thinking I might want to change span if I decrease the reverse my fingers.

Thoughts and feedback on the next step relative to decrease reverse in fingers and potentially change the span to accommodate these changes would be appreciated.

I should also mention that my ring finger is 7/8 left due to the years of abusing my knuckles, which causes me to come around the ball excessively. Thoughts on ways to compensate for this issue are also appreciated.

Thanks in advance

That strikes me as a bunch at once from 1/2. The fingers don't hurt anymore, but they are getting less flexible... I'm thinking at least 1/4 though and if memory serves, there's some formula for the amount of span change that should accommodate the pitch change...?