I do have better luck using two corners of the counters, although they're only about 3 feet apart, less than the instructions given - I figured putting them in corners where they're always in exactly the same place (and further apart) would help. The alignment bars and the big red-then-green loading pixel extending away from the controller (rather than straight up) hinted that direction matters... and indeed it does matter. Using the counter corners, I set the anchors with the controller triggers pointing at me.... then when I loaded, the triggers were pointed away from me and the entire layout was about 1 foot off (away from me). When loading using anchors in the corners by the front door, I adjusted the angle of the layout by pressing the right stick then rotating that one controller. I think I have better luck at the counter because I'm placing and holding them in a natural position, while the points at the front door are too far apart so I take them off my wrists and set them down separately.
Bottom line, it seems like the green pixel is the anchor point rather than the center of the ring.