I promise, your file is perfect. Smooth as silk.
Can you try something for me quickly? Go to Edit>Assign Profile, and assign your monitor profile to the image. Does that make it look worse, better, or no change?
There must be a black-and-white layer in the group that's desaturating everything underneath it.
Just add a mask to the group and make sure it's only being applied to its half of the file.
No, sorry. I'm not aware Bridge has ever had that feature. It's the domain of the camera manufacturer's own software - eg NX for Nikon, DPP for Canon, etc.
Excellent.
So now, as long as you have soft-proofing turned on while editing, your histogram will be accurate and you'll be able to edit without the clipping in his face.