Thanks to everyone for your replies.
I called three different dealers and finally got an explanation from the third one as to why there is a discrepency in the plug gap specifications (R8 versus R11) for the 1995 model year.
I decided to stick with my owners manual specs and installed NGK R8 Laser Platinum plugs.
I discovered that several of the installed Denso R8's were seriously out of gap and likely overdue for replacement anyway.
My Lexus now runs very smooooth and the slight shudder I was getting under moderate acceleration has completely disappeared. :D