1) Personally, either time or pollution procession tiers, with coal -> coal+steam -> Basic Filter -> Advanced Filter with each tier either processing same amount of polluted air faster or processing more of it. Right now there's not much incentive to use filters in Adsorber unless you want to conserve resources.
2) Yeah, I found that one. I tried mod in Sandbox save, and FNEI and Editor Extensions have wonky compatibility.
3) That would explain some things, obviously I missed mod settings. I have no problem with sending you save file, I just have to dig it out and upload it somewhere first. Expect lots of mods though.