"The only way to handle the ripples long term is to have a curved base. The factories never have really grasped this even on custom pieces. The existing darting on new pieces all but goes when you trim the excess lace"

Exactly...I have another piece that had darts/pleats and after trimming the base the pleats were gone. I have never pulled the front lace when applying to my head. I apply tape to the piece. So if I pulled the lace it would have only stretched the lace and the tape. So once on my head it would pull and make it worse. I notice glue helped a little. But it did not completely remove the ripples