This problem was addressed in #zftalk. Apparently Zend released 1.0 quietly with the ViewRenderer helper enabled by default. I really don't think this was a good idea, but nevertheless I've learned to deal with the problem. It looks like all your problems are because of the ViewRender and possibly not using the ErrorHandler plugins correctly. Another thing to consider is the modular directory structure which zend seems to recommend because of the way their code is setup now
The best way is to re-read and understand the controller section of the manual because it has changed alot.