My next question is this: does modifying the following setting have any actual in-game effect on the duration & magnitude of potion and poison effects?
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/FPotionMortPestleMult
Yes. I use it in my http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32365 mod, so that the player makes less effective potions when in the wilderness, and it works.
Furthermore, when I try to create possible poisons through the http://www.uesp.net/oblivion/alchemy/alc_calc.php, I sometimes get formulas that have as many as five effects. If I edit the setting "http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/IWortcraftMaxEffectsMaster" to a value of five, would that mean that I would be able to see and use all of the available effects in the poisons that I create?
I have never used this, so your guess is as good as mine.