the angle doesnt drive the fish wild, but instead it helps you control the depth of the lure... its like an airplane wing. because the snout of the plug is facing up, and the tail is down, when retrieving it, the water is pushing on its belly. this is what makes it suspend... you stop and it sinks, speed up, more water is pushing on its belly, so it goes up. Now if the plug was sitting in the water totally horizontal, it would do the same thing, but it would be harder to control depth, especialy getting it to go up....this is why i loose 3 times as many superstrke needles than habs needles.
agian, I need to fish one of these squids myself, but thats why 45° is a nice feature in my book.
try fishing it with a light weight braid, jig the rod tip and make sure you give it total slack, who knows it might dart backwards and you arent noticing it...