I don't have the actual depth of the scuff, but it is definitely wear, not just removal of the anodizing. When we got back from our trip this summer (with about 8,000 miles on this cam plate) the oil pressure was very low. According to the gauge on the dash we had about 16 psi at 2,000 rpm when the motor was at 230F. The dealer checked it with their calibrated mechanical gauge (also at 230F) and found that the gauge on the dash was spot on! (Bad news actually...)
After verifying the low oil pressure they looked inside the cam chest and found the badly worn cam plate -along with wear marks and grooves inside the oil pump housing (see earlier posts). It's hard for an amateur photographer like me to capture the depth of the damage -I was just happy that the pictures were more or less in focus...
My mechanic just happened to have the cam plate out of his bike with several thousand miles on it (don't know the actual miles). We compared them, and his showed scuffing and removal of some of the anodizing, but no real wear into the cam plate. My cam plates all have noticeable depth to the damage. Even the one with 11 miles on it will easily catch a fingernail.
The T-Man approach to the Timken conversion looks pretty thorough, but I didn't see anything about whether they correct the pinion shaft bearing bore if it is off in relation to the plate they use. I assume they must do something if they find a problem there though. Overall, I like his approach very much!
I really appreciate all the input, and plan to investigate the ideas brought up. I think this has to be a result of some kind of case machining error and will investigate accordingly. As Johnsachs, and Sadunbar pointed out, the wear on the pinion bushing looks like it shows some kind of problem. Not to mention the wear inside the oil pump body is all on the same side as the pinion bushing wear too...