It’s fine, 90 degrees is correct so the moment arm increase is minimized.
The truth is torque isn’t really that accurate of a way to consistently tension bolts. Use some thread locker or lube and your bolt tension goes way up for the same torque reading.
Torque is used for mechanical design all the time, for structural bolting we require other methods as torque is pretty inaccurate/inconsistent unless calibrated by testing.
Yup. Bolt stretch is key to holding tension on the fastener, generally speaking index angle gets you there. Torque is just a quick and dirty way to get you in the ballpark.
