I have been aware of the bent diode issue under the mini play field for a while and have finally decided to do something about protecting the diode. I believe there were a couple other posts a while back showing guards that people made for their machines. This is what I came up with for a no-cost guard. Others can do the same, but you need to have a part of an old plastic ramp laying around.

I removed the mini play field and took a look at how to cover the switch. Then I measured and cut out a small section of an old plastic ramp. Plastic ramps cut easy with either tinsnips, fine hacksaw or a small disc grinder. Cut to what you feel is an appropriate size and then clean up the edges. Next you can drill a couple holes in the plastic and mount right under the two screws that hold the microswitch to the board. As I show in the first and second photo the piece of plastic ramp seems to be hanging a little bit too far above the switch so I took a hair dryer and heated up the small piece of ramp/guard and simply bent it around for a more contoured fit. Other photos show the guard after it has been curved and how it looks once the mini play field is reinstalled on the machine.

Plastic is obviously not as strong as a metal guard but I think this should hold up fairly well and it is not electrically conductive if it does get damaged.

Not sure why photos are loading in reverse sequence.
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Nice professional looking installation Averell.

I recently had my IJ apart for a good cleaning and fresh rubber. I have always felt a little unsatisfied with the factory plastic airplanes. So I bought a couple of 1:72 scale diecast planes off Ebay for a reasonable price and fit them onto the game. I know that some IJ purists will say that my planes are not technically correct, but I really like how they look on my machine. They are a bit smaller, much more detailed and look just right to me.......playfield and ramp are also more visible.

I took the LED board and wire harness off the factory fighter and made it work on the new smaller die cast fighter. Basically removed the LED's off the board and hot glued them onto the bottom of the die cast wings. Then cut the original board down so that it was nothing more than a small cluster of diodes and resisters, and hot glued that under the new fighter. Soldered the original harness on at the proper board location, and ran fine wires from the LED's to what was left of the circuit board. The circuit board and wiring is not at all visible when viewing from a normal position.

When the LED's on the fighter are flashing it really stands out a good bit more than what I was used to seeing on the original plastic fighter.

IMO some Pinsider who is good with making and selling mods could probably do a decent volume of business with something similar to this.

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My experience has been if the set screw which locks the mini playfield onto the motor shaft becomes a little loose then the mini playfield does not tilt fully and I have had some of the problems you described.
With regard to the ball constantly dropping to one side I have found it beneficial to loosen the set screw and make sure the mini play field is pushed gently forward towards the front of the pinball machine then tighten the set screw very firmly. Also do not be afraid to "slightly" bend the little tabs that the ball passes between as it drops from the hold position on to the mini playfield. With a little testing you can find a happy spot so the ball can be directed to either side.

Davi, that playfield looks spectacular !

Yes, I put a spotlight on the left slingshot upper post and am really happy that I added it. Unfortunately my pins are all folded up for a coming move to different house, so I can not post any pics. But I can say that I have added spot lights on a few of my pins. It takes a little time to find the least obtrusive location/angle that yields the desired illumination. Also be ready to try various bulbs (I use LED) so you can tune in your preferred brightness and color.....most of the time I use a simple warm white to keep things a little more subtle. If nothing else, playing around with spotlights is pretty inexpensive and easy to change back.

It is fairly common, and I used to have the problem too......ball smacked the biplane many times. I ended up putting a little muscle into the wire form upper section to reshape it just a little in the area were the ball was flying off. Try to pull/bend just the 2 outer/upper wires so they are a bit higher up toward the playfield glass. Pull the upper wires with your fingers while pressing the lower wires with your thumb. I don't think I adjusted the outer wires up much more than about .100-.125" and the problem went completely away on my IJ.
I hope this helps you as well.

Wire broke off one of the coil lugs? Recently had that happen on the ball launch coil of my IJ.

Here are a couple pics for you

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No, Ball ejects and hits the outside rail covered by the metal plate and then falls/rests in shooter lane.

I do not recall that ever happening in 20+ years of owning my IJ. Please let us know what you figure out.