I saw a post on FB from an ST185 owner saying the CT200H/prius spindles were a bolt on mod for that chassis. The tie rod is flipped upside down. But is it really a bolt on job? Loose some weight for the mcpherson people...

Never heard of this, but would be curious to know the answer. Toyota is pretty good about keeping that kind of interchangeability, so I could see it happening. Not sure about the brakes though, as Prius uses thinner front rotors.
Also, any other Toyota 5x114.3 hubs bolt to the Prius knuckle? I know there's a way to do 5x113.3 conversion with Rav4 spindles, but this way would be next level for those interested.

just saw a video on DC5 integra chassis where the guy showed that placing the tie rod end on the bottom of the mounting point actually made the bump steer angle worse. So i believe this would be the same for this alloy prius knuckle. Unless you part of the slammed crowd.

Tie rod has to be at the same angle as the control arm at ride height, with both being parallel to the road at stock ride height. Lowering the car screws with that by changing the ride height angle of both.
When fixing the angle of the tie rod on a lowered car, same has to be done to the control arm by getting the extended ball joints. If the guy in the video only changed the tie rod, then yes, his steering geometry would be even more messed up than it was from simply the car being lowered.

ahh okay makes sense. I just watched speed academys video on the ITR restoration. and they just installed new ball joints up front to compensate for the lower ride height