Top mount, whether sitting on the body or up off it with some room still to pull up, feel better to my right hand than recessed. I've tried many times over the years playing recessed, and I just can't play rhythm's the way I want.
Quarter pounders are great - I have them in my Jake clone.
I have sort of moved to maple neck guitars myself for the same reasons. A lightly finished maple shaft is really nice to play on a gig when it’s humid and gross out.
I've had a couple that were lightly potted and they were fine at gigging volumes, and my band covers Dio/Maiden/AiC/Metallica. I tried one unpotted before and it would definitely squeal if i wasn't careful so the potting took care of it. Wolfe is great.
I bought an FU-Tone bridge early last year for a specific reason - to try to get something Floyd-like that would intonate correctly on an early Sinclair sporting ESP Mirage. This era of Sinclair had a much shorter saddle length (and where the break point was on said saddle), and it was designed...
I like the action around 5/64's at both E's at the 12th fret, with a little bit of relief.... maybe .010 or .012. I find I can't play real well on most of my friends guitars because the action is too low.