About the tags: coffee corner discussions and wiki pages are the only types of content, that I can think of, which don't require manual tag entry.

As for moderation: I was able to ask questions, which did not go through moderation on 10.10. and 11.10 and had no problems commenting to questions/answers at all. I don't know why things are different for you - could it be related to Karma Credits?

I read somewhere, that being moderated on q&a is a time-based thing and should be gone some hours/days after you joined the new platform.