Mark, that's exactly why I use diff grease in the thrust race - so the balls grip. The lubrication we want is between the balls and the 'cage' that holds them in place. We don't, as you say, want the lubrication to be good enough to make the balls slip on their thrust washers.
I suspect that the diff grease is not good enough to provide metal-to-metal lubrication in the thrust race, so on the next rebuild I am going to switch to an EP-style grease. AE black is good for that. The key thing for a good diff is to use the minimum amount of grease. Slapping it all over the thrust washers and balls just makes for a diff that drags, picks up a lot of dirt and gets stiff prematurely.
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