The further outward you can move the lower mount will be best. There will be less stress in the control arm. We have seen some failures here due to poor designs in that area. As far as angle of the shock, 45 is not too much. Whatever fits best with the shocks and springs you choose. My car is running abut 48 degrees static.

technically, the spring should be in rising rate, that means that as the suspension is loaded, the spring angle moves to
wards the vertical, if you can arrange for this to happen it will allow you to use softer springs, as the spring increases its effective rate, over and above that built in to the spring itself.

this is also a benifit to the shocks as damping in shocks is per linier inch of travel.

all the old guys would locate their suspension bracket in the line of force through the a arms, whilst this is good, this is sometimes impractical, but do the best you can and if necesary add some bracing.

don't wory too much about adding weight to the hubs end, in this application it is better to have it work and be strong than be super light.

How in-depth do you want to go in determining which option to use? As there is very limited information on your suspension design here, are you just looking for a 'gut feeling from eyeballing it' or are you looking for specific reasoning? If I'm interpreting your pics correctly though, you're dropping an inch from the shock length (14, 13, 12) with each positional change at this shown ride height. Have you measured the change in motion ratio that occurs as the suspension moves through its entire intended range of motion for each of these options, and not just at ride height? Are you certain that your selected shock will have enough travel in compression as you decrease the shock length at ride height? The shortest shock I see in the Bilstein catalog is the 4" stroke ASN, which has a ~10.5" compressed length, and they only get longer from there. That would leave only ~1.5" of available compression for a shock length of 12" at ride height, not counting any type of bumpstop. Would that be enough?

So I guess if I had to throw something out there *for educational purposes only* it would seem that based on what you've shown, the longer shown solution might be at an overall functional advantage to the shorter shown solution.

I would say not to worry about the 50 degree angle and worry more about bending loads from the shock on the upper bracket or the wishbone. It seems simpler and produces less undesirable loads.

That cross piece for me was under the top rail not across the top . Will deoend on your shocks where it is best located. If you are streeting your car, this extension can do double service as the headlight mount. Most of us use it for that.