Is bypassing the support section the new norm? Faster turnaround? (Two issues)

Hey all, I've been seeing a LOT of posts showing up in in regards to community support, technical support, etc., often with drastically improved turnaround times for responses and/or solutions. Is this the new norm? Should we be encouraged to submit issues here?

I've been dealing with a community creation issue since the first week the feature went live, and have had to bounce emails back and forth via the "support" option, oftentimes with a "fix is coming this week" response (week is now over), meanwhile I'm seeing responses to technical issues posted in public with a turnaround dramatically faster, and oftentimes will real-time back-and-forth commenting until there's a solution. Should we not be making the support option the first, prioritized spot for technical issues? Nonetheless, I figured I'd give it a shot here, in case anyone else was running into the same issues, and if there are any answers, it may curb the amount of messages sent to support.

I had to have admin delete one of my communities, thus taking it from 2/2 to 1/2, however when I'm trying to create the new community, it's indicating that I've reached the max number of communities (2/2). Maybe something still needs to be fully cleared on the back-end?
I'm noticing several of my posts (all in ) indicating that there's a comment, but I go into the post, and there's no comment there (one of them eventually had the comment appear after a few days). I would assume that this is due to the automod possibly pulling those comments for review. Would this be correct?

Thanks, peeps!