@bubliman couldn't read the whole chat history, so remind me if I missed some question. Or write me in dm.
Yes, there is 1 server that supports 0.7 protocol. I wouldn't call it vanilla. Just 0.7. You can search it or take the address from #info post.
As for the forum - it was closed about 2 years ago, so our community discussion is moved to discord. It is a good idea to refresh information about mapping interective objects. Howewer, it is not hard if you know how to map.
About the test server - yes, for aure you can download it. I'll search for the link and try to send it today. But its very old binary, so need to test if interactive objects are up to date there.