I had decided to restore my firmware (after using AnySim 1.1) after some of my apps were misbehaving and/or crashing unexpectedly.

The original release statement had implied that by restoring the firmware, any signs of AnySim would be erased.

However, through my process, I have become to believe that AnySim modifies some portion of the flash that is not restored when restoring the firmware.

In my trials, I had restored the firmware twice using the TouchFree method. Each time I tried to run AnySim, received a message that I could not unlock my firmware please restart the iPhone.

One of the stickies (ultimate unlocks) said if I saw the message, just continue, the phone might already be unlocked. So I continued with iAsign and sure enough, afterwards I could put my SIM card in and everything worked.

As an experiment, I restored my firmware and didn't even try to unlock, just activate. To my surprise, my SIM card worked.

So my question to the Dev Team is, are you sure AnySim truly is erased with restores?
Or is there some additional step I must take?

Same here, I went from oob 1.1.1 to 1.0.2 and use AnySIM 1.1 to unlock (it is working). Then I tried to do the 1.1.1 unlock from the "Ultimate Guide", I skip the step on running AnySIM and just did the activation, and it works right away. But once I restart the iPhone, and only the "Apple" logo appear and hang. So I restore to 1.0.2 and jailbreak, and the phone is unlock again. So as what you said, I dont think the firmware restore clean the AnySIM.

This is what I did,

oob 1.1.1 -> 1.0.2 -> activate/unlock but use AnySIM1.1(no modification of baseband), and it works-> restore to 1.0.2 -> upgrade to 1.1.1 -> use the ultimate guide (touchfree doesnt work for me, so use iDemocracy), it works, but once I restart the phone, only "Apple" logo.

So all in all, I ONLY run AnySIM1.1 the first time and never need to use again for the 1.1.1 unlock guide and restore back using the 1.0.2 unlock.

Hope I am clear.