I'm guessing there are not a lot of people in this thread well-acquainted with HLA's, especially on an old engine.
Let me start with my bullet point here:
Many HLA's do not function correctly, especially when aged, under absolutely perfect circumstances. Any oil/filter/whatever testing under these circumstances lacks a proper control for said test.
Complaining about HLA noise due to a certain product is like complaining that a straight door you purchased, does not fit into a crooked door frame.
I've owned 3 Mazda BP 1.8 engines, and also Mitsubishi 6G72TT engines. Both engine families are notorious for HLA issues.
Forget the oil filter. There is absolutely no way in Hades, unless it froze over, that any modern oil filter is going to create enough restriction to starve an engine's valvetrain. What are we talking about here? The oil filter or engine would explode if it had that much unregulated restriction.
What's supposed to be going on with the bypass valve anyway? It's just sitting there, going, "Well, this filter isn't flowing jack, but I'm just going to stay closed and starve the engine.". Come on.
The real situation here is that high-mileage (and even some new) HLA's are temperamental hags.
My BP 1.8's? Noise, unless I ran a 0W30 synthetic. Filter didn't make a difference. I used a variety of PureOne, Motorcraft, and Mazda OEM. Only thing that shut it up was the oil.
6G72 HLA noise? Try all of the filters you can get your hands on. The only thing that will quiet them is a good, thin, synthetic that will squeeze through those too-small oil passages the easiest.
This is not an FU problem. It's not an oil filter problem at all. This is a Mazda problem.