True! But it is nice to have the option. Now if the animation on web parts would be off by default instead of on, I would be even happier!

I typically use the new Link that gives you a URL. You can add metadata to the link by using Grid view. Not the same content type so it depends on your outcome goal, but you can definitely add the metadata and filter and sort and show the content in the highlighted content and other web parts.

If you mean the ones that people set up with Alert me, then yes.

Check out some of the benchmarking reports on SharePoint and Viva Engage from SWOOP. There are some good examples www.swoopanalytics.com/sharepoint-b...