Yes there's a marked improvement between your two meshes. The crazy thing is that the detail level / poly count appear the same, its just the placement that's changed. 

Three years ha, I laugh at you! I'm an obsessive compulsive vertex slinger with no money, no family and no social life. All I have is time. Oh no, that made me sound really pathetic.

I have no problems starting over again but I'm interested to see what obstacles and shortcomings I find during production. Then I can target the problem areas on the next mesh.

You should start your ears. Be like Jack Sparrow and run into the mouth of the Kraken.