I still don't understand why people always talk about oil consumption and compression tests. The oil control rings don't seal the engine, and the compression rings don't do oil control. Sure, if you have bad compression rings, you can have oil consumption problems. But you can also have oil consumption problems with perfect compression ring sealing. So a compression test doesn't necessarily tell you anything.

If the surface finish isn't correct, or the crosshatch angle is too steep, you can burn a lot of oil without causing compression problems. Too deep of a hatch pattern (even after a plateau hone) can retain too much oil, and too steep of an angle can make oil pump past the rings. It's pretty easy to screw up a hone if you don't know what the specs need to be, so if the machine shop isn't used to doing engines of this type with rings that need a certain type of cylinder finish, that could easily cause problems.

I'm still thinking it's a break-in problem or an improperly honed surface. Valve seal problems just don't seem to completely fit..