> gain control network with a fixed 10Ohm resistor... though their example shows a 10K pot
One way you have 10 Ohms. The other way you have 10,010 Ohms. Put that in the gain formula, you have 1,000:1 or 60dB of gain change. (Maybe a little less.) Which IS what you want!
3,300uFd at 10r is 5Hz, or -1dB @ 10Hz, which is awful flat.
And IMHO, rooms rumble and I never want MAX gain with 5Hz-10Hz response. While "interaction is bad", the typical use-case makes maximum usable gain related to excess bass response, inversely, so some bottom-cut CAN be a good thing. I could be happy with 50Hz, so a few hundred to 1,000uFd may be fine.
Yes, electros distort. But if you have minimum resistance you have HIGH gain and input (and cap) level is a few milliVolts. Distortion is teeny, while hiss is high. OTOH at low gain the R is large and small nonlinearity of C is swamped-out.