-> 1)
I also see some unexpected restrictions to the tab coloring, I expected it to work somehow like wildcard labels work. It seems impossible to set tab colors for all sub folders of a specific location or to set color for all network/local/ftp locations. If I define a path folder format, which contains the tab color, any other folder format will not be used anymore, but maybe there is still something we are not aware of?
-> 2)
I see that too and wanted to report this as well. It's very hard to distinguish the active (colored) tab between other non-active colored tabs. Setting "Draw folder tabs using visual style" does not make a difference on my computer and it's off for me usually. Maybe the color should be applied to a portion of the tab or we need a new cursor/dot/symbol overlaying the active colored tab somehwere. I also tried to set "white" for active tab text, since this color would stand out better, but it seems there is some auto-contrast detection kicking in, overriding some color combinations? Is that possible or was it me seeing "things"? o)