Well, per my first question, I'm still unsure as to which biomes.xml I'm supposed to be editing - the one in the mod folder, or the main one. I'm assuming it's the mod copy, so I should say that I have noticed a change after a quit & restart(actually more than one as I've been testing multiple mods, IIRC, and perhaps with some inexplicably necessary time lapse, because I tried that before with no change, but then it did for some reason). The only problem is, the grass is gone altogether. None. Anywhere.
And the second issue still stands. No change in the resource recoup with chest dismantle.