Parallel/Series effects and the effect on mix

[Bakerman]

Actually what I was thinking of looks different than the above pic.
I'm actually hurting my brain trying to figure out all the ways the signal flows in that one! Haha

The signal flow is the same as your example. Combining two signals to a shunt only to branch to another effect/shunt is unnecessary when the first effect & shunt can simply both be routed to the next effect & shunt in the following column.

...unless I'm misunderstanding the dry signal level issue

I think you might be; see post #6 above.