1. Can I paste from an Excel spreadsheet into the editor and have the formatting preserved. I tried today and it drops out the bold, some shading, and the centering of columns

2. Are there ways to highlight something in the visual editor and have the corresponding HTML code be highlighted as well (like it does in Expressions Web)?

Re #1: You can't copy/paste the contents of an excel sheet and expect to have the same formatting. You can, however, insert the actual excel sheet in an iframe and have it included in the webpage.

Re #2: No, we keep asking for that.

You said three important features, what is the third one?