FCPX is well known to be doing tasks like rendering and exporting via GPU, not CPU so your experience is entirely in line with the software’s design. More GPU power would translate to higher performance… i.e. YMMV.
The original clips shouldn’t change in the inspector but the export should conform to the project settings. What sort of issues are you having in the export?
Where are you located Eric? Is this a post house, a training facility, a TV station, etc? Are 20 bays going full time with staff living in their own specific bay or do freelancers rotate in and out of different bays?
Doesn’t really exist for FCP X unfortunately. However, Motion has support for Midi triggers and can be played for effect the way you’re describing. To be honest I’ve not seen anyone really taking advantage of that capability much tho.