Dan:

>>Question 1: When offsetting a curve, such as ellipse or freeform, the resulting new
>>curve has so many more control points, especially along the tighter bends, even though
>>the newer curve doesn’t seem to be that much more complex than the original. I can often
>>delete many of these “extra” control points without any perceivable effect on the curve at all.
>>Why? I’m just curious. If the answer is too complex you need not answer.

Something to try :- Extrude a surface from the base curve, offset the surface, then copy/paste extract the edge you need. This is a long winded way of offsetting the base curve but often reduces point count. Another option would be to model using line/arcs if possible this will help your case dramatically and keeps geometry much simpler for further feature editing ;-) (Micheal is 'simplify curve' or the list?)