Hi Fred, welcome to the forum.
I am with you with number 1.
For number 2, you would want to have a seperate view but it still should be your InfoPath form. There is no easy way to transition or manufacture a word or excel file easily from InfoPath, but you can replicate either one with a InfoPath form. You can replicate almost any word layout and you can have tables like excel.
You can have a submit data connection which submits the form via email too.
You should look at the Database Accelerator download. Qdabra Database Accelerator Suite Version 2.1 - DeveloperWhat you are describing is best with a backend data source so that as multiple users interact with it they have the latest information. You would also need to identify the user so that both User A and User B get the correct data view.
There are some sample templates included with the Database Accelerator which have assignments and email routing. If you would like a demo of some of these, to give you some ideas or see if they might be adapted to your solution, click on my name and send me an email and we can set somthing up.