Did he say how often he was washing before? Curious if the soap fixed things or if it was really just cutting out the gel. Also how does a bar of soap even lather in Toledo water, that stuff is hard as rocks.

Muffin tins actually hold way less than you'd think, each cup is only about half a cup of rice. So if you're freezing a full batch you might end up with like 12 little pucks when you could've fit it all in one flat bag. Not saying the tin thing is sad, it's just more work than it needs to be. The real trick is spreading the rice in a thin layer on a sheet pan first so it freezes loose, then dumping it in a bag.

Spending $45 on fancy paper is the actual problem here. Foil works fine and the airflow thing is way overblown, people act like wings turn into hockey pucks if air can't do a full lap around the basket. I've used foil for two years, wings come out crisp every time, and a roll costs like four bucks. Your parchment caught fire because parchment is thin paper sitting inches from a hot coil, that is not a liner flaw, that is physics. Maybe the move is to stop buying single use stuff and just soak the basket in hot water for ten minutes before scrubbing.