Seeing as this article was recently linked to, I will bump it with my impression that half of the misaligned dates pictured are not misaligned. This is most visible with the LV photo where yuo can clearly see the camera angle by seeing the top half of the rehaut but not the bottom half. If the camera isn't dead on over the date, you'll get barelling as well.
Yes, there are some clunkers, but a few of them can be explained away by mentioning that after 10pm, the date wheel is starting to get pressure from the date-change mechanism. If you insist on taking watch pics with the hands at 10:10, do it at 10:10 AM.
All in all, I'd say misaligned date wheels are possible, but that's not what we're seeing in all these pics.
Mahler, I appreciate your effort and it's an interesting discussion. I hope I don't sap your enthousiasm for the subject.