aye, messing with origins took up a good couple hours of my time on a VAV box with a similar problem (resulting in that solution), however I think this problem had more to do with Revit being a pain in the neck with its odd quirks.
I think the problem dealt with Revit not knowing where to "plant" the origin of the receptacle family within the wall.
I try to stay away from annotation symbols whenever possible as I find them a bit bulky. However thanks for the tip about aligning them, that was something that has puzzled me in the past.