Oh wow stage 1 picture shows the welds isn't even a perfect circle...that would interupt in air flow for sure and won't gain maximum performance...
sarcasm aside, that is right. seeing as the header tubes are smaller than the exhaust ports on the head, bigger means more flow. perfect circles are near impossibly by hand, and even more difficult given their starting points in stage 1 photo. with those raised welds there would be far more dead air causing restrictions then there will be with smoothed and rounded edges. stage 3 will be wrap, which will increase temp in headers, lower gas density and improve flow further.
i wonder how long it will be before someone comes on and preaches about the problems with wrap?