Tex if you are having humidification issues I HIGHLY suggest checking out
Heartfelt Industries and getting some humidifcation beads. About a pound will take care of 50 quarts of space, much much less for a desktop humidor. Once you humidify the beads they will keep the RH perfectly stable at whichever RH they are conditioned for (60,65,67.5,70 etc.). I use them in all my humis and only have to do maintenance once a month or so. If you are having problems beyond that with varying humidity in the humidor you may want to grab an oust fan, if you toss it in there it circulates the air and pretty much universally solves this problem.
I would agree with you on the current ELs but I would say the Bolivar Gold Medal (not technically an EL but previously a regional release) is a fantastic new cigar. Also, like you said, there are way more scumbag fake habanos dealers than legit dealers on the Internet. I can think of several off the top of my head. So definitely be careful, but there are also some reliable retailers out there..