No, the hard starting was caused by a faulty fuel rail damper. It let fuel into the vacuum lines when running and after shut-down. I can only assume that the low fuel rail pressure on a warm engine was causing some kind of vapor lock.
The failed check valve inside the vacuum reservoir allowed it to suck in air (with fuel) from the line going up to the engine after shut down. Intake manifold vacuum ceased after shut down but the reservoir still had some left and it wants to reach atmospheric pressure so it pulled in whatever it could to reach that state.
I was inside the fender replacing the antenna and noticed the vacuum reservoir was full of liquid, which turned out to be fuel upon further investigation. It also had a part rattling inside of it which I later determined was the check valve. It led me to trace the vacuum lines to find the damper. With the vac line off the damper I could see fuel flowing out of the nipple at a slow rate when the fuel pressure came up.
