By clicking on any of the transmitters in your report, you can see a cross-section view of the terrain between you and the transmitter. The transmitter is shown on the left, and your location is on the right, like in the following view of KABC:
KABC and the rest of the Mount Wilson transmitters are bending over the tops of the mountains to reach you, so yes, the strongest signal can be found by pointing your antenna at the nearest mountain ridge rather than into the side of the mountain.
However, I think the bigger factor is your current antenna. The CM-2016 is not a very powerful antenna. It only has 2 long elements at the back, which means it's not very strong on VHF stations (ch 2-13) like KABC. I think that if you had a better antenna, you would not have to worry so much about raising your antenna. The change in height makes very little difference in your predicted signal strengths, yet a change in antenna performance might improve your net signal strength by several dB. Your focus should be on getting a better antenna.