Hi, 195cm tall, 96cm inseam and full of understanding for the problem - very limited choices of frames from China, especially if you are looking at endurance rather than race geometry.
I have bought and built a Velobuild VB-R-099, if I am not mistaken the frame is also available as Long Teng LTK268-D, Workswell WCB-R-268 and TanTan TT-X21.
https://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,3102.msg34848.html#msg34848
Seatpost setback is used to adjust your position over the cranks, position on the bike is then determined by stem, spacers and handlebar.
I like my VB-R-099, but the saddle height to bar drop is about the maximum that I can / want to tolerate.

I had no luck with pedals from AliExpress, do not think buying from Asia direct is worth  - considering you get Shimano or similar pedals at decent prices.
Failed badly with Xpedo RF-S1 (SPD), very difficult to release.
Also ran a pair of SYUN-LP R31 (SPD SL), heavy design flaw: only one ball bearing in the center of the axle and a bushing near the crank arm.
The bushing wore out in no time, resulting in a loss of seal and pedal play.
Pedals from AliExpress: never ever again...

Agree, the Sensah FD is far away from being a masterpiece of design and function.
It will work, however, but in my experience it is sensitive to routing of housing, bends and cable friction.
If you can optimize above, it is okay - but nothing more.

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I'm really interested in building up one of these YFR068s (also looking at the GF-002/YFR045 or BXT Gravel 135), but from reading these threads, it sounds like there are so many issues, especially centered around the headset area. I'm wondering if I should be looking at something else instead (it would be my first full-bike build), or if most of these are sorted and it's a really small chance I'l run into the issue, or if the problems have since been solved?

Well, Velobuild is not famous for their headset, either - lots of issues in this forum reported.
I believe not matter if Airwolf or Velobuild: be prepared to sort it out yourself...

I would say the stem is more tolerant to adjusting height compared to traditional stem designs.
The problem with this stem design is the specific top cap and its weak design, which does not allow sufficient headset compression and leaves many Velobuild customers with headset play.

Agree, have them remove the mount and ask for a discount, as long as they can remove the mount without leaving any severe marks.
Use a FD clamp in the future, nothing wrong with that