I was only able to accomplish this using an Exists filter. AND:A:EXISTS:A:$$EXISTSMOD=EXISTS AND:A:EXISTS:A:$$OBJCODE=TASK AND:A:EXISTS:A:projectID=FIELD:ID AND:A:EXISTS:A:status=AFN AND:A:EXISTS:A:status_Mod=notin AND:A:EXISTS:A:templateTaskID=AAAAA12345 AND:A:EXISTS:A:templateTaskID_Mod=in EXISTS:...

Hmm I havent tested this but perhaps you can create a calculated field on the Task custom form that references the project:sponsorID field. I'm still iffy on whether the Assignment "collection" will allow this comparison though.  

Unfortunately, you're correct, this is not possible. You cannot use conditional formatting on collections. 

Hmm.. I just tested this and didn't have any issues with portfolio showing as No Value.  I did have to use text mode to accomplish it though since Portfolio isn't available as a field to use from the report builder. Perhaps your text mode code has a typo somewhere..Here's what I used. Grouping Text ...

You're not entirely correct.  Primary contact does equate to "Owner" but that is different from the Assignment "Owner" (Assigned To).  They are different fields and can have different values.  You can only have one assignee in the "Assigned To" field since that field corresponds to the Assignment Ow...

The "Assigned To" field is typically associated with the Issue Owner.  Tasks/Issues can only have one owner.  You may need to do an Assignment Kickstart after you create the issues.  That seems like a mess though...

It not very clear from your post but it seems to me like you want to see time entry by day for each role / task.  To do so, you need to add Entry Date to the groupings. Id look like this.   

Unfortunately there is no way to do that within matrix reports.  The only reporting feature that allows "clicking" to see underlying data are the chart reports. 

Looks like it's back up and running

Ive been a Workfront admin for almost 8 yrs and this seems to be the longest application outage from what I can remember. Odd that they performed maint an hr prior to the outage... I wonder if that was the cause.