Is this behavior in help desk expected?

This matches my experience exactly. The hard part is staying consistent once the initial novelty wears off.

Solid breakdown. The only thing I would add is to back up before making the change — better safe than sorry.

Strong agree. Good defaults beat a wall of toggles every single time.

One caveat for larger communities: keep an eye on the indexes. At a few thousand rows the difference is night and day.

Adding a small note: the same idea applies on mobile, just with a bit more attention to tap targets.