Update: In the middle of a nice giant snowstorm, I replaced the shoes and springs, plus since the kit came with new star wheels I replaced those as well. I pulled the actuators apart, cleaned them (they moved freely) and lubed them very lightly with brake grease. The shoes still drag, albeit very slightly. The wheels are hard to turn by hand, and I can hear a very subtle scraping while driving (much better than before though). Also, the rear wheels got a bit warm while the fronts stayed dead cold (after driving around neighborhood twice and a tiny bit on the highway at 45 mph). I'd suspect the cables, but they seem to move freely and the shoes are clearly retracted as far as they can go ... the bottoms are right up against the metal plate that protrudes aside the actuator. So I'm missing something here.
It doesn't seem to affect the car's performance so I guess I'll just take it to get an alignment and drive it a bit, checking to make sure it's not getting too hot.
Everything else seems OK. It tracks wonky but I'll let the alignment guys deal with that.

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