On some feeds, it depends on the source of the feed. Some sites format the feed correctly, while others do not, and yet others are hit and miss on which results are formatted correctly. I have this issue with vbulletin's own RSS integration for new threads from certain sites. Some sites won't work at all, some give me some results, and some give me all the results. I can't really explain other than that.
As for the ticker separator, I never did work on that further than the last one as the one I originally intended it for worked how it was meant to. It's been like that since its inception. For the CSS, it was intended for a global ticker (which is why you have adjustments in the admincp) and for non-vb pages as long as you can integrate them. I had it running on a non-vb page originally - but have made many changes since then. There was a lot I wanted to add (write in) on the admincp, but formatting breaks my HTML in the phrases, so I passed. I have given out similar suggestions to some in the earlier versions - before 3.8.x (I am unsure if it is in the thread or sent by PM) but yes, you cando that
I have a copy or two of an earlier version somewhere where I attempted to use the style-based CSS rather than admincp input and I might revive that but I have a few other projects I am working on for release.