[BetterRed]

I thought the existence of a space adjacent to an ellipsis was germane to why ellipsis is there.

From memory, CMS has space before and after to indicate missing words, to indicate an unfinished sentence no space before, and period after. MLA puts [] around the ellipsis to indicate missing words, IMO that looks better if words are omitted from the start of a sentence.

But as Jefferson said - "On matters of style swim with the current, on matters of principle stand like a rock."

BR