When butt coupling a Fabry-Perot laser diode to an extremely closely spaced waveguide (separation less than or equal to a few times the Rayleigh range of the laser beam), there is a trade-off between the optimal power coupling and the variation of the coupled laser diode's operational characteristics. Changes in the butt-coupling configuration parameters influence the coupling efficiency, as well as the strength of the feedback into the laser diode. Using a previously reported phenomenological model that treats the butt-coupled laser diode as an extremely short external-cavity (ESEC) device, we quantitatively describe how the butt-coupling parameters can be used to control the output power, threshold current, wavelength, and relative intensity noise of the ESEC laser diode. Our analyses are supported by experimental results. The importance of choosing the correct coordinate plane for evaluation of the overlap integrals that are used in the model is also discussed.