Were I to hazard a guess, (um which I guess I am in fact

) I would say the theory is that if you are in fact generating lateral force you would want it to pull on the airplane as opposed to pushing on it as the inner tip would. However, that being said, to generate a lift vector, you are creating a perpendicular (?) drag coupling. so, I would theorize that if in fact you created significant side force, you are also introducing a yaw moment making the aircraft fly nose out, which in moderation wouldnt be horrible, but I would think not a good thing, so perhaps you could counter that by using rudder to yaw the nose back in. Of course this would be a static adjustment, so would create some trimming issues ESPECIALLY as it the needed rudder would seem to want to change with speed. In fact to balance a systme such as this so that it didnt introduce yaw, my logic would say that you needed the inboard SFG to be larger by the same percentage as the speed differential between the tips. Interesting to think about, nice theory.
you stated that he crashed shortly after the pictures, did the crash occur as a result of loss of control , pilot induced trauma, or power,, In other words, did the SFG'x create a problem that caused the crash?
In looking closer at the second picture it appears to me that the plane is flying with substantial nose out yaw,, hmmm