okay, I confirmed the action works correctly. I made an fsm with a GET KEY DOWN, and set the Y value after that, and it works. The problem seems to be, whenever I switch to a different CM camera using the send animator trigger for it, I then must wait like 0.2 seconds BEFORE using the Free Look Camera Set Y Axis Settings or it "won't have time to adjust" which is weird since the transitions are all simple Cuts.
That's true this was a workaround to deal with the fact the transitions didn't keep the angle to begin with, so I will ask the cinemachine people why the Y was getting reset to 1 upon each transition from the Virtual Camera to the Free Look Camera, as that SHOULD already work by default. Thanks!