So I've found a workaround that works...posting here in case helpful to others.
For the most recent comment, it appears bringing in Issue>>Status Update (my board is fed by an Issue queue) covers that. And for the column yes this can't be done, so I have instead created teams that reflect the columns and auto assigned tickets moving into that column to the corresponding teams, then pulling in Issue>>Assignments.
As ever with Workfront, there's always a way However it would be lovely not work with and not against/around its functionality once in a while.