And a solution to the dilemma

Thanks Pat! I have to give a shout out to my knitting pal, who gave me a shove in the right direction on this.

Pooling on the instep (according to Pat, and it makes PERFECT sense to me now) is caused because the rounds over the gusset area are much longer than the rounds on the rest of the sock. You pick up all the stitches along both sides of the heel flap, so of course, the pattern of the yarn is interrupted by all those 'extra' stitches. DuhOh!

And what kinds of heels DON'T do that? Short row heels - my least favorite technique. No matter how I try, I cannot seem to get the 'pick up the wrap with the stitch' part. I have read several different descriptions, and looked at pictures on at least three websites and still just 'don't get it'.

But Pat pointed out that it's a very USEFUL technique, and that the last Six Sox KAL sock had a garter stitch heel that doesn't require the beastly 'pick up the wrap' stuff. So there it is, a short row garter stitch heel. And it even matches the 'garter ripple' in the top hem. And it will be joined by a 'garter toe' from the same Sixth Sense Sock pattern from the KAL.

All better now, though I'm not a short row heel convert quite yet. But I'm getting there on this pair of socks at least. I just need to rip out the heel flap on the other one and get to this same point on it.