Color Finesse, Linear Workflow and Neat Video questions

Hey everyone =) I have a few questions about color grading that, after trawling the web for good answers I'd like to throw at the forum here.

I'm working with H.264 footage from a canon 550d, and my workflow is to remove noise with neat video 3.0, then color correct with color finesse, then sharpen. I'm working in 32 bit color depth within after effects (I assume 32 bit depth is always best when grading?). What I'm wondering is, will I get any benefit from linearizing the workspace, I've never used this option before. I understand it changes the gamma. Does this mean that I should always have it checked and that it will change the way my tonal adjustments open up the midtones.. maybe that it will affect the tonal contrast in a pleasing way? or should I leave it off.

Secondly... how would people handle where the noise reduction should fit in this workflow. Would it be better to apply neat video, then render uncompressed, reimport and then apply color finesse... as opposed to just stacking the effects and tweaking the order, and then rendering once... or I could add neat video, precomp the layer and run color finesse on the composition. I've never tried doing all of these things in one app before.

Lastly, does anyone have any suggestions for a great sharpening plugin, other than the AE default one.. and is there anything else I should know to have the perfect workspace set up for grading? should I use any color management? things like that.

I'm sorry for the rather nooby questions, many thanks for any help :)

Matt