And very eloquently put. My experience is that different designs act differently with the addition of up or down aileron used as flaps. Flaps and flaperons are strange animals, but very interesting nonetheless as you've questioned. What I call Flaperon being a Futaba dude, is the lowering of the ailerons mixed with the raising of the elevator and vise versa. This is an old technique used by the U Control guys to smooth out loops and other looping type maneuvers. It seems to give the wing better lift. In R/C, it can and is often used during flight in general and not just landing. Again, it makes life smooother.
Reflex, or raising of the ailerons is used more and more these days with the advent of 3D and such. It seems to help in Elevator and Harrier type maneuvers to keep wing rocking to a minimum.
I've been hearing about raising them, (for highly aerobatic models), to induce washout to help prevent tipstalls when going too slow
Although is does help as far as washout, remember that a full span aileron is also washing out the root. Use reflex sparingly and after testing different attitudes and flight characteristics.
In my mind flaps create lift, reflex dumps it.
Does the fact that they are inboard as opposed to full
aileron make a significant difference?
My first reaction is yes. This is no longer a flaperon but a true flap. It's doing what flaps do, and that is to keep the root from stalling before the tips. I would NOT raise them unless you had much altitude to play with and they were on a switch as opposed to a function that is on all the time.
The purists may correct some of this, but until then...