1) I exported a very simple cloth animation and the FBX file retains the debug geometry. It does not go away when M_VAT_Soft is added along with the texture maps. The single quad centered in the middle of my simulation can be hidden by disabling "include Hidden Debug Plane in Geometry" but that only removes the center plane and not the two additional tris.

2) Mesh particles that use a VAT object render the back faces considerably darker. It seems to work well with a regular mesh that gets rotated but I am not able to pick up the correct lighting one it becomes a particle.

I really like the new tools and I like the evolution.

The Materials such as "M_VAT_Soft" are not the way to go. One has to use the Material Functions to get this working properly, it contains the debug tools that removes the Debug Tools.