Bizarre iTunes Match Behaviors

Wanted to see if anybody else is experiencing similar oddities to me (and, if so, have they found any solutions):

ODDITY #1: Prior to running the match, I had about 18GB free on my iWhatevers (Phone and Pad) with all music installed and the option to downgrade to 128 selected to conserve space. After the match, the slider bar told me I'd be at 1.5GB over capacity -- even without turning off the downgrade option. That's nearly a 20GB swing, but (1) I didn't see a correspondingly large increase in the size of my library on disk; and (2) even if I had, that whole increase shouldn't be reflected on the iWhatevers because of the downgrade in bitrate during sync...right?

ODDITY #2: iTunes purports to be matching songs (AC/DC is the best example) that do not exist in their on-line catalog. Are they matching to cover bands, or is this the real deal?

ODDITY #3: iTunes is failing to match (and thus forcing upload) of songs that ARE in their online catalog. For example, I have 311's Greatest Hits, which one can purchase from iTunes (it is in my library as a ripped CD). 16 of the 17 tracks are matched; the 17th was uploaded. Why?

ODDITY #4: Songs that I purchased from iTunes are stuck in either "Waiting" or "Error" status. I thought this had to do with a change in Apple ID when I changed email addresses, but, on further examination, there is no rhyme or reason.

I thought I'd resurrect this thread, as some of the problems seem to be solved in the more recent build of iTunes...

ODDITY #1: Prior to running the match, I had about 18GB free on my iWhatevers (Phone and Pad) with all music installed and the option to downgrade to 128 selected to conserve space. After the match, the slider bar told me I'd be at 1.5GB over capacity -- even without turning off the downgrade option. That's nearly a 20GB swing, but (1) I didn't see a correspondingly large increase in the size of my library on disk; and (2) even if I had, that whole increase shouldn't be reflected on the iWhatevers because of the downgrade in bitrate during sync...right?

Click to expand...

This appears to be solved. I now see no change in data size whether I sync my devices with match on or off (I'm still syncing over USB, rather than using iCloud on my devices, because 64GB is enough to port my entire music library over).

ODDITY #2: iTunes purports to be matching songs (AC/DC is the best example) that do not exist in their on-line catalog. Are they matching to cover bands, or is this the real deal?

Click to expand...

After ensuring a viable time machine backup, I deleted my local copies of a sampling of these files and redownloaded the matched versions. They all appear to be the real deal. As a side note, in a number of instances, files that I had as clean version were redownloaded as explicit. That didn't bother me, but it's something for others to keep an eye on.

ODDITY #3: iTunes is failing to match (and thus forcing upload) of songs that ARE in their online catalog. For example, I have 311's Greatest Hits, which one can purchase from iTunes (it is in my library as a ripped CD). 16 of the 17 tracks are matched; the 17th was uploaded. Why?

Click to expand...

This one is still a great mystery to me. I think my match rate is improving, but I can't be certain.

ODDITY #4: Songs that I purchased from iTunes are stuck in either "Waiting" or "Error" status. I thought this had to do with a change in Apple ID when I changed email addresses, but, on further examination, there is no rhyme or reason.

Click to expand...

This one had to do with duplicate files, which I think stem from my earlier iTunes Plus upgrades. Not all of my iTunes Plus upgrades seamlessly replaced the M4P files, which led to match errors.