>> Perhaps the value of org-blank-before-new-entry is getting clobbered?
>
>For a start, this:
>
>org-footnote.el:(defvar org-blank-before-new-entry nil) ; silence byte-compiler
>
>is bogus (the relevant syntax is (defvar foo)).

Glenn,

I believe you found it.

Applying the change in org-footnote.el.patch (attached) corrects the
vertical spacing issue I noticed.

Steve