Thank you for taking the time to make suggestions.
These are all good suggestions. Similar work items for editing have been on FT's list for a while, but not necessarily in the sense of replacing the first few octaves of the fractal function.
I'm not sure I understand this request. The pan tool has two modes: move the view center and move the center of projection (hold down the shift key - the hand will have a "C" on it). If the current projection is orthographic then moving the center of projection is equivalent to rotating the globe.
As I don't know how you expect them to work, I can't do anything with the request. Please describe your expectations instead of just "doesn't work how I want."
Fractal settings apply to the whole world. I considered what the MojoWorld folks describe as "parameter bombs", but the general case is a bit unpleasant to implement, let alone describe how to use. It would require what amounts to a selection for each area to specify how to fade in the new data and a new fractal generation state for each area. Execution time will now go up proportional to the number of parameter bombs in place. And there would also need to be a place where users can access their list of parameter bombs. In short, a major amount of development and explanation time for a feature that would most likely get little use and likely require a lot of tech support. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be useful, just that I think that there are more valuable targets to use my (very) limited time on.
The edges of selections can be modified using the Select>>Feather operation. This operation blurs the selection. When changes are applied through the selection, the edges will be smoothed, which will reduce the sharp transitions that you don't like. Using Tools>>Global Smooth on the channel that's causing problems will also smooth over the transitions.