All

Unfortunately, many in MTBing, are often confused on the roles played by first the spring rate and how it's used primarily to manage chassis attitude, balance and support and is mostly specific to rider/ bike combined weight & weight distribution; vs. second the role of damping which is utilized to control the rate of the movement of the suspension and is much more specific to the rider and their aggression level and terrain. To put it in the most basic terms, a linear rear suspension with a coil would either a) bottom excessively, or b) have to utilize too much...

Nope, if youre changing the progression, be ready to adjust settings for it....

yup, and ever since everyone settled on the post mount standard, brakes almost always use an adaptor anyway........so it wouldn't really be that big of a deal to make callipers with different bolt spacing. As for bottom loading pads - I take the wheel out to clean the calliper and reset the pistons anyway, so it makes literally no difference. Even with top loading pads, if the old pads were slightly worn getting the new pads in was still a pain if you left the wheel in

Fabien Barel famously rode his floating brake arm on the Kona in a way where his rear end would get pulled into the travel under braking to add stability. Therefore my previous comments about floating brake arms giving the option of adjustability (through changing the length of the supporting arm for the brake link).

I wanted the lightest damping possible, so I'm running straight argon gas in my damper. The super thinnest fluid I could find.