1). As far as monsters go, yes there are less of them. It was designed that way. There are supposed to be less monsters, but their AI is supposed to be improved and you are supposed to gain more exp and what not from them.

2). I never got that far into the game without it being patched. In fact, I could hardly play the game without the TELP 1.3 patch. I thank them tremendously for it. ^_^