Meh, you just need to understand what max is doing so you can work with it in a more complete way. Maya has its warts too and the problem you're hitting isn't really max specific its that you need to know a little more than what its showing you, which you can run into in any new application. 1) Working with maxs normals…
I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to do, but it sounds like the bevel tool will do what you need? * Set the upper parameter to 0.0 and adjust the lower "outline" to scale the polys without moving them away from the surface. * Set the lower parameter to 0.0 and adjust the upper "height" to move them away or into the…