Am I totally nuts or just a bit off?

I think that you are totally nuts. The Shure, designed for 78RPM wide grooves, not mono LPs, has a stylus with a diameter of 65 um. The correct size mono stylus for the mono records that you are playing is around 25 um, but not any larger than 35 um. I believe that you are risking groove damage using this sized stylus.

I think that, if you get a mono cartridge with a properly sized stylus you will enjoy your LPs much more. Grado, Ortofon or even the Denon 102 should fit the bill and not break the bank.

Good mono recordings can be a very special audio treat.

Your madness must be stopped. I will help. Send me all those records for proper disposal.
I will not even charge for my services out of the goodness in my heart for your sad condition.
PS send the cart along too...

Send Liz the turntable, as well. Cranking the old Victrola is getting her cranky. HA

I don't think you are nuts. I'm still amazed at the quality of some of the old recordings. Recently I was listening to some old Fred Astaire remasters in mono and the vocal presence was downright vivid. Some things to me sound better in mono. I don't know how they were recorded, but maybe they sounded better because they were recorded as a whole and not a sum of a bunch of parts. The structure of the whole performance seemed more right.

A number of years ago at a dealer with both new and used gear set up and playing in different rooms, I heard an old pops album played on a Garrard turntable through a Musical Fidelity A1 into some Epos speakers. I think the price tag on the whole damn setup was $1200. It was mono, with little detail, but the tonal structure of the whole performance was just terrific. What an epiphany that was that I sat there listening to that display for 20 minutes and didn't much care to move on the next room.