User Data as in “Add User Data”? I don’t know that it gets recorded with the Record Active Objects button – probably you have to use the keyframe dot to the left of the data in the User Data properties.
add a new Special Track/Time to the Physical Sky (in the Timeline) – that makes it the second Time track in your physical sky so call it something else (TimeControl?). Then in the original Time track drag TimeControl into the Time Track slot in the Properties.
The new Time Track (TimeControl if you named it that) does have an F-Curve you can play with
the quickest way is probably to delete the null and select all of (what were) the child objects and group them again (alt-G) that puts the new null at the center of all the selected objects that are grouped.
no, it has to be the construction of the scene. The ball is moving after the ‘spoon’ rotates so dynamics are working but something is keeping it up, without the scene file it’s hard to tell.