Yeah they added a connect tool in one of the recent versions. Still pretty useless as it's limited to one segment and theres no built in slide/pinch like max.
You won't lose that purdy edge if you're wanting to bake normals. Check the lip below the slide release here, it's a floater on the LP but modeled in on the HP.
It looks a bit thin to me, especially on the grip. Material on the low poly is off, looks like plastic. There's also a really ugly smoothing error on the slide.
This is the final batch of images that we decided on using. There had to be a lot of different aspect ratios for facebook banners, twitter and instagram pictures, powerpoint slides, etc.
I don't think the scratches would be white... Also i think there would be be more damage around the magwell or hammer than at the front end of the slide.