I see what you mean about changing the belt without moving anything shouldn't make a difference, but if you had to move the crank ever so slightly to get the cogs to align you wouldn't know which way you need to nudge it to be right without marks to go by. From what I read doing the belt change with the cams out of time gets considerably more complicated. I think that is the section where I read it takes a considerable amount of revs to make the marks "catch up". I would suggest leaving the belt on till you find your Guru. He'll surface. Can you hook your battery up so you can turn it over without plugs and have someone watch to see if the cam marks gain as it spins?