I heart RS motors.... when you go to a tuner you should take their advice, if they tell you to get a gmbcs, then you (or I) should have gotten a gmbcs... It's not right for me to have gone against advice and expect that he would be familiar with this part and how to tune with it. I think I will bring it back there after I work out some gremlins.... I'm going to call Ronnie now and ask his advice for realz.
I think you should put RS Motors on retainer....just pay them 100 per month for the "just in case moments"
Yes, I would recommend to anyone getting tuned to do all of that stuff before going in for a tune. And nope, colder plugs will not require a retune. Well, these typically don't go bad, and seeing your boost curve, I don't think this is your problem. Although you could make sure the actuator arm isn't stuck, and I've heard of putting a little grease on the arm and going for a drive to see if it gets messed up (the arm goes in and out when the actuator and the BCS are working correctly).