The particles in mine were very noticable to the naked eye, even though it was shiny like you say. They actually looked like speckles with streaks from the polishing. It started up too early for me, with a very round backend move. I actually picked this up after my Nebula cracked, but I think its a stronger ball. I ended up giving to a friend of mine with no revs and he has had some success with it. I had a label drill, CG grip center pin just over ring. I know you've said it before, but these covers are monster.

The first WCPP I had drilled with a 4" pin about and 1 1/2" above my ring finger had tons of length, until I got a nasty scratch in it so I decide to refinish it.  After deciding on a final finish of 1000 scothc-brite I decided to polish with a lot of Legends polish using the high speed setting on my spinner and came up with the same finish you guys did.  It's highly polished but has a very tacky surface and what looks like exposed particles.  In this condition the ball looked like it wanted to go long, but it was the complete oopposite in it wanted to grab early.  To combat this I knocked the polish off using 1000 abaralon this time instead of 1000 sctoch-brite and used their extended length polish opposed to the standard polish they provide and had a much better appearance (closer to stock) and was able to get the desired look and on lane performance I was looking for.   Seems like Scotch-brite activates the particles and then addding tons of polish only seems to aggrevate them and bring them to the surface, thus creating a ball surface that wants to check up instead of getting the expected length everyone expects from it.
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Pat Patterson