"the tone was clearly way superior to anything else in the shop."

Good for you. The sound is the most important thing, and I'm sure you will soon develop some techniques for dealing with the strings.

When you think about it, all cordage is perverse. It doesn't occur in nature; humans invented it. It's useful, but it ties itself in knots, it kinks, it ravels, it snaps and it whips around. Just listening to a mandolin, we know that the strings are very fine and under high tension. They are bound to be perverse.