For question 1, the sidebar on p. 30 states, "Knowledge has been broken down into the separate skills used in most campaigns. Specifically: Academics, Battle, Electronics, Hacking, Language, Occult, and Science." So technically it is not a part of RAW for SWADE. Of course p. 32 does have a sidebar talking about creating skills. Since Hero Lab has some ability to code in Knowledge skills with some ability to handle that, I would think it's good they decided to keep it available.
Not sure on your 2nd question.
(Edit: Ha! CC posts right as I was typing that response.
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