House Reference Questions

So the facility where I do most of my work does a mix of SD and HD, there's a GEN10 sync generator used for reference.
But I'm not sure it's being used correctly, and I have several questions.
Currently the GEN10 sends 1080i50 sync to HDCAM and PAL sync to Digibeta.
When playing out to tape, the reference to the edit suites is manually patched between 1080i50 and PAL depending on what format is being played out.
The vast majority of stuff done is PAL and 1080i50, some 720p50 and very occasionally 1080i59.94.

Should we just be using PAL sync to sync all devices, despite also doing HD?
Can an HD signal be synced to SD reference?
If so, is there any point to tri phase HD sync if you're not doing 23.98?
Can dubs be done between HDCAM and Digibeta using HD sync on HDCAM and PAL sync on Digibeta, or should both be syncing to PAL?
How can the HD sync signal be distributed, can a standard def distribution amplifier be used?

Thanks Bob in advance for your informative and humorous response...