This website is full of know it alls. If he wants to have his chain ring there, then he will have it there. He obviuosly knows a fair bit about bikes and would have changed it a long time ago if it was causing a problem.
Really nice bike by the way.
the sprocket will probably flex when your on a sprint . . mine almost does and i wouldnt be surprised if this does also . . looks like it did at one point . .
but either way . . . i know you like to be able to say mines closer so you suck but all is good
just put a spacer on the bottom bracket... you may be able to get an extra 1/2mm of spacing... or ,since you are not using a bashguard,you could also put the chainring on the outside of the crankarm instead of the inside sinse you are not using a bashguard
I can't put the chainring on the outside of the crank arm because it would screw up the chainline too much, same with adding another spacer to the BB. The clearance hasn't been an issue yet, 0.5mm is enough for me.
Your dumb, if your running SS you can just move over the back cog if it matters that much to you, and in any case it will not hurt the alignment at all, look at a derailer and the angle it puts a chain on, it is much greater than the extra mm here.
It's not on the wrong side of the crank. Saint M800 cranks are designed for a 3-ring setup, therefore the middle ring is designed to go on the inboard side of the spider.