Ok, I’m gonna call BS on myself. If you DON’T set tempo from def, it actually works close to how Reaper works. But, you have to set the tempo in the pool on the file. Then simply click freewarp. Don’t detect any markers. Set your own end marker first. Then a good anchor at the front. I’ve redone it a few times to makes sure I can consistently do it. So, by setting the tempo first and NOT extracting tempo it seems to behave much better when aligning to the grid from the center of the file.
As usual these threads are awesome … I just have to act like as ass for awhile to ensure I learn something.