My understanding of these rubber bushed joints as used on the shocks and wishbones is that they should be packed with washers as necessary to avoid stressing the mounts but the bolts should be tightened up with the vehicle weight on them so the bushes are in a neutral position. If left loose you will get rattling and fretting at the joint.
Definitely this.
The inner tube of the bushes should be clamped solidly between the brackets to avoid the initial unconstrained movement that would result from them being free between the plates. Unfortunately, MMC designed the gaps between the brackets to be longer than the bushes so you have a choice of leaving the bushes loose which is really not good, tightening the brackets in so that they clamp poorly on the bushes due to them no longer being parallel (like MMC do) which isn't good as there will still be some movement leading to fretting of bolts and bushes or packing the gaps with washers so that the bushes are a tight fit between the parallel brackets then tightening the bolts. This is the best option with the original shocks and does reduce free movement.
At least some of the after market shock suppliers do supply their shocks with spacers that remove the excess gap but even then you will probably have to straighten the brackets to get the shiny new shocks in for the first time. After market shocks tend to have bearings top and bottom rather than bushes which is another good way of minimising free initial movement and friction as the loads change on the shocks.
