Update 6/21... still no luck bleeding the clutch.
One of my buddies who works at a local (non-nissan) dealership came by last night to give me a hand since my wife is in Jersey for work.
1)I've adjusted both the RJM clutch pedal to 0 AFP and adjusted the master cylinder clevis rod to make sure it's going in squarely/smoothly.
2) I pumped the clutch pedal 3x and held down. Friend loosened the connection at the master cylinder, and did get a bubble out of that. Repeated 2x more, until it stopped bubbling at that connection point.
3) We repeated everything we'd done before, again. Friend under the car at the bleeder valve, me pumping up the pedal (moderate speed so as not to froth the fluid and introduce bubbles), holding down at the end, he closes the valve. Regardless of what we did, we were still getting air bubbles out. We've checked all visible fittings/connections, and everything is tightened.
It almost seems like air is being reintroduced to the system somewhere. This is with a brand new master cylinder (oem) and a zspeed HD CSC. We've gone through the Zspeed procedure. We've gone through the FSM procedure. At best right now I have an incredibly notchy series of shifts (it did improve enough that I can get into gear - reverse is still a complete crap shoot) and side note, the midweight z1 flywheel sounds like a frigging tractor!
I was expecting louder, but this is pretty crazy.
I'm pretty much ready to throw in the towel at this point, have it towed to RT Tuning and see what they can come up with. It's beyond my skill set at this point.