1. I believe player speed will make the difference in speed between players greater, but game speed or whatever it's called does what you're thinking if I'm reading that right.
2. Corner routes are OP basically, so you will need to user those to shut them down. Otherwise beyond the obvious man-beater stuff, I think the zones are decent enough in terms of at least being in the right spots sometimes.
3. You can high pass and stuff with L1/LB and the receiver icon. In terms of lob passing itself, just tap the receiver button.