The theme's forum is not very active and I don't see somebody that answers questions in that forum,
the theme's forum is still the right and preferred place to post.
many volunteer helpers are browsing all forums and topics, so that posting in your theme's forum should not be a disadvantage.
and yes, themes can be quite different.
also, a reminder, that edits to themes should preferable be made using a child theme - http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes
have you studied and tried the 'pre_get_posts' method?