It may seem obvious, but apps like Discord with screen sharing, torrents, or multi-browsing can impact latency.

Yes, a Steam release would be strategically very beneficial for 0 A.D., provided the game reaches a stable release.

hello com mod players, thanks to testing, I found and fixed an OOS. If a little more testing is error free, I'll release the mod  community-testing-fixed.zip

I'd really love the ability to select the Phase in which the game commences. This would allow for a wider variety of singleplayer and multiplayer playing styles. It's a common feature of many games with technology or research phases.  For me, I'd like to jump right into military composition, battle tatics, etc. without all the "boilerplate" of unlocking my civ's champion units and siege units.  I'm wondering if there's a console command or config file I could tweak or some other hacky workaround. Also, as a programmer, I'd be okay with contributing this feature to the Matches UI.  

No, there is no extra benefit. There is no difference. All garrisoned soldiers give the same amount of arrows. Place archers either behind the fortification so they can pelt the enemy from afar, or inside the Civic Center/tower/Fortress. Preferably the later, as archers are very easy to kill.

So there is really no extra benefit to garrisoning an archer in a building when compared to other infantry. Where should archers be placed for extra arrow benefit?

Any garrisoned citizen soldier or champion adds to the arrow count of those buildings.  Garrisoned women don't add any. Try to send them into houses, instead.