1) I am a key bind person so rarely use on screen elements, but I will look into this, I can't remember seeing the button, but I will get that working.
2) I like this idea, I wouldn't want to add too much to screen cluter, but a visable xp bar seems reasonable.
Rebalance
This is a fair point and I have noticed it myself with higher throughput. I like the increase item pick up, but it does need to be scaled better for fast inserters and keep a clear upgrade path. I believe bulk inserters are still faster
I have been doing a tonne of background changes to get the mod ready to be more accepting for how I see it in 2.0 so feed back like this really helps me move forward as to what the player may want moving forward. Your suggestions are added to the list, I expect within the week I will have something to show for it.
Edit:
I'm daft, Re read your rebalance idea, I get you now, I whilst skills can be toggled, I think removing fast inserters from the entities it's affected by may be the answer here so they will always act as expected, whilst bulk inserters should just get better at bulk.