I'll take a shot at a couple of your questions.
1. on the "events" tab, see the "Msg Property Sets" button on the left. This lets you control where the messages end up. You can put them about anywhere on the screen. You have to make sure that your font is small enough. If it is too big (say >40, the message may take up the width of the screen (depending on the message size of course).
2. For layouts, each cell has a property set for rounds and for breaks, but I am not sure what you are looking to do? Do you want your layout to change 40 seconds before the end of a round?? It might be easier to have a message event or sound event occur than to have one cell change at 40 seconds before the end of a round. But there is probably a way to do that as well, if nothing else by defining a different screen set. Still, not sure if I know what you are trying to do. Could you explain exactly what you want to happen?
3. You can easily assign points for top 8, regardless of what prizes are. I am trying to figure out why you want to make points a prize - so they can be displayed in the prizes token? Could you explain why you want to assign points as a prize?
4. Sounds like an interesting feature request. I don't use the table movement by TD, so can't help you there at all.
Good luck.