As you said, Unclenick. "Maybe, but maybe not."
I did read the whole Berger manual before i tried loading some.
The stories of Walt were enjoyable!
I did follow the advice from the manual on seating depth for the VLD (close to page 100 IIRC).
Did this for 6 different rifles. One of those rifles being my Stevens 200 in 7mm-08AI, that i used the 140gr VLD-H, now rebarreled to 250 Savage shooting the 115gr VLD-H.
2 Savages, 2 Rugers, 1 Forbes 24B.
All like the VLD up close & personal to the lands. Except for my Mauser in 284 Win. The throat is long enough that i can't even seat a 168gr anywhere close to the lands. I tried back as far as 0.130". No luck.
This year i spent more time at some matches. Almost to the person are saying they seat "into the lands".
I'm not saying that somewhere, someone isn't finding best groups that far from the lands, but would probably be the exception, not the rule.