<<Did I read that correctly?  The aircraft stalls at a SLOWER airspeed
with stall strips?  I thought stall strips were there to induce a
stall in that portion of the wing.  When used near the root of the
wing they force the stall while you still have aileron effectiveness
-- like "washout", decreases the likelyhood of a wing dropping -- and
cause turbulent airflow to strike the tail producing a buffet to warn
of an incipient stall.  How could inducing a stall earlier (faster) at
the root of the wing do anything but RAISE the stall speed?

Are these stall strips or vortex generators?>>

I think you have the right question.  I believe they are a little of both.
A narrow part of the leading that forces the air to "trip" will induce a
vortex that could actually delay the stall while at the same time inducing a
buffet of the elevator.  But them I'm a real amateur aerodynamicist.

Gary Casey