Very helpful, El Loro! I will sticky this post across all forums for awhile, and we can add to it as necessary.
To clarify, the Add Reply shows up on every topic page, but clicking that button will put the reply at the end of the topic, and you'll wind up on the last page of the topic.
The Follow bar is indeed checked by default when you reply, so you will need to uncheck it every time (this is the same as 1.0, btw, as my email can attest.) 