1. That's true. But we are already in that regime with the Var attn at 0dB, aren't we? We can reduce the input to the amp by 1-2dBm sacrificing the EOM out by that amount (we can compensate this for the demo out by removing the 1dB attn).

2. Not 100% sure but one possible explanation is that we wanted to keep the Marconi output large (or as large as possible) to keep the SNR between the signal and the noise of the driver in Marconi. The attenuator is less noisy compared to the driver noise.

3. My guess is that theoretically we were supposed to have 13dBm input and 20dBm output in design. However, the actual input was as such.  We can restore it to the 13dBm input.