In terms of 2CC>j.C versus 2CC>j.6D, the difference midscreen seems to be about 200 damage off 2B starter and about 7 meter. I don't find the 2CC>j.6D all that difficult to pick up, the timing just feels kind of awkward initially, but once you get used to it, it's pretty consistent. I also tend to opt for doing j.6D>j.B(2)>j.A as it's slightly more damage and for whatever reason, is more consistent to me. But any j.C air chain is j.C>j.A>j.B if I cycle through all of them.
I've started on a little thing at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nL-dOatwlZRMoUOhKZyWoQKH_zWtWFcwL9cHEr65k1A/edit#gid=0 (started as a thing just for me so I can make sure to remember combos or any other oddities, but I figure anybody can have access to it really). As you can tell by the large amount of gaps, it's very much a work in process as I really just started on this more or less yesterday, but if anybody would like to contribute, that would be good. I've also made notes of what combos give best damage output and best meter gain depending on positioning as well. I've also left in a lot of non-optimal combos, just incase some of them are easier for others to do, or they just look playful, or in case any new combo route appears from it. [Edit: whoops, I didn't allow anybody to edit, so if anybody tried adding anything, sorry x.x it should be working proper now]
Oh, and as for the throw-8 hits issue; for whatever reason, I seem to do better with mashing and doing a 720 (I dunno why specifically a 720, but it works out better for me, I guess because I'm more focused on getting clean circles).
I can't get this to work =/ Even just doing 2CC>j.C>j.A>j.B(2)>66C>22C>2B>4B, they tech out in between the 2B and 4B =/