Art Unwin wrote:
"But my main question still remains a pointer to a technical article
that discusses the possibility or impossibility of what I have stated."

I don`t get the question, but it seems to me, Art wants to know if
anyone has written of a method to make maximum gain correspond with
maximum front-to-back ratio in a Yagi.

I haven`t seen it. There is a third factor in the compromise, 50-ohm
feedpoint (or some other convenient impedance).

Kraus gives the Yagi-Uda story in "Antennas" There has been much
experimentation and the tradeoffs still exist. Don`t close the patent
office yet. Almost everything can be improved. Art may be implying that
he thinks he has a way to make a better Yagi. I hope so.

The "ARRL Antenna Book" is a good place to see where the art was at the
time of publication. The Antenna Book devotes a chapter to the Yagi, No.
11 in my 19th edition. The directional patterns show a pair of
troublesome sidelobes in addition to the mainlobe. It`s the sidelobes
which are suppressed at the sacrifice of a little gain. Parasitic
arrays are close-spaced for significant excitation. Close-spacing means
close-coupling which lowers the drivepoint impedance. It`s a tradeoff
again because low impedance eventually limits the antenna`s efficiency.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI