Hi Rob,
yes you can use workflows for that. let me give you some ideas for your issues:
by default, workflows uses "_" as the separator for the frame number. but in your case, it could be a good idea to change it to ".". that will avoid the interference with the date field in your name convention
To change it, go to Workflows->Name Convention Manager->Open Name Convention Manager
and create one with this name convention: [path][baseName][.frame][.ext]
After that, you can select it for your workflows with workflows->current Name Convention
That way, the software will not detect the date as a sequence anymore. That should fix the tape name, and the time code issues in one go.
by default transcoding nodes maintain the FPS and resolution nodes from the inputs. but you can overwrite the FPS field in the transcoder node properties. in Transcoding->FPS if you put 25 there, it will not retime the sequence, but write 25 in the output file as the new FPS (so the final sequence will last longer maintaining all the frames).
There should not be any retimer applied. if you see any difference, it could be a bug, we will test it to be sure it is working correctly and update you ASAP