Brian I think you are on to something here... I love the lightweight shafts and everyone knows that... I use 65-75g graphite iron shafts and I let tons of people hit my epons and they are all shocked at how wonderful the feel is... a high quality lightweight shaft with feel matched with Epon's forged head. I tell them too, I'm 100% certain it's the shaft and head combo complimenting each other.
My fitter put Project X 6.0's in his AF-301, also found them harsher than what he expected... switched to Nippon 1050's and a world of difference... the feel returned and he's happy once again. The shaft makes a major impact.
Sometimes it's really a lot of experimenting which, yes is not cheap, I had Axiv graphite in my ViQ's earlier this year... great match... put them into my g-Field CCB-1's... ugh... lost the feel.