If you want to get technical about it, it's all about the ratio of the servo arm to the control surface. I think we've agreed that you want the attachment to be as far out as possible on the control surface. Where I see Jaka's point is that that 5 degrees of slop in the gears (it's never that much of course, but I'm using the term you used) creates a bigger linear movement the farther out on the servo arm you go. But it's the ratio of length that mitigates that. Farther out on the servo arm means more slop from a linear movement perspective, but then farther out on the control surface means that the linear slop makes less of a difference.