In my testing I also found that the relay lens reduced image quality a little, so I too went with a monitor instead. To me it makes perfect sense that adding in a lens with 14 additional elements whose only purpose is to invert the image can only have a negative impact on image quality. Nothing in optics is perfect, and I think there are bound to be slight errors that accumulate with so many elements.
I have not tried the angled relay, but I am not at all surprised if it degrades the image a little more than the straight relay. After all, it is manipulating the image to an even larger extent, and again, not in an effort to improve image quality. So I personally trust your results.
If you do more testing, I would recommend starting at f/8 instead of f/16. Peak sharpness in my testing was around f/8-f/11, and by f/16 I noticed a significant reduction in the sharpness of fine details due to diffraction. So image quality comparisons done in the f/8-f/11 range will likely give clearer results than those done at f/16 and above. That said, obviously for real world shots you may sometimes value the extra depth of field over peak sharpness.