ok - looked at your vids on that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4zI7DNKsoU
starting ~:43, he goes into Needling Sea Bottom (and actually gets into it very much how we do, which is different from all other versions of the form I've seen, with the "extra' crossing of the hands before going into the downward move w/the right hand), to Opening Three Gates, and turns and does the series of moves very similarly to us - very interesting! I will have to take some time to look at it in more detail, should be very interesting...
as far as why the Yang is so different from Chen - that has been a question on my mind for a long time; obviously I am not versed in the Shaolin arts as you are so have not been able to compare accordingly; however, one thing has struck me about the 3rd "chapter" of the Yang form, which is that there are elements that seem very different from the rest of the form, and also the way the are organized, like Wild Horse, Jade Maiden - sort of just "thrown" in with Lan Zat Yi's seperating them - like they were single techniques from somewhere else that he just added on (I also wonder to what extent they were influenced by his contact w/Dong Hai Chuan - who, my sifu believes probably was a far superior fighter to Yang...)
my teacher is Master Sat Chuen Hon; his teacher was Master Ham King Koo; Master Koo's teacher was someone by the name of Yang Zai Teng (my transliteration may be way off), who was some sort of Beijing court official who was evidently rather scholarly and all that, who studied with YLC directly (at least that's the story as I know it); Master Koo was very young when he studied w/Master Teng (1910, I bellieve), who was very old at the time; Maser Koo was in his 70's when my sifu met him (somewhere in the mid- or early 1970's) and passed away in 1999 at the age of 95.
http://users.erols.com/dantao/koo.html
Master Koo was also very good friend w/Master Tung Ying Jieh, and in fact we do a version of the Tung fast form that is "flavored" a bit differently; there are also some elements in our long form that seem to have been absorbed by Master Koo from Tung as well;
you might have read Master Hon's article on his personal research on the Daoist Alchemical roots of taiji in the Winter 07-08 issue of Qi? if not, it may be of interest to you; if so, I am curious about your opinion (even if you do not agree w/his perspective, that's fine, I'd be interested why not)
again, thank you
very much for your assistance and in depth research!