You are in a much better situation than you think. Both Perfect Pass and a surf sized swim platform are nice to have but hardly mandatory. The first weekend we had our boat we surfed with the boat completely stock (400# bags, platform, etc.) By far the most important upgrade is ballast and you're done. I would put the 400# back in the center locker, bow weight helps this boat greatly. We generally run about 25% in the off side locker.

As for speed control, that will just take practice. Best advice I can offer is: control speed by tach not by speedo. The response time is slow so make a little adjustment (100 rpm) and then wait to see what the resulting speed is. It might take a little longer to get it stabilized "by hand" but once you're there, you should mostly be able to leave it alone. Fight the urge to constantly adjust the throttle, strive to find the engine speed (tach) that holds you where you want the speedo.

We still have the stock platform. I want to get a surf sized platform but it's low on my life's to-do list because we're surfing fine right now. I know it will be better but it's not unusable as is.

The prop might become more important. We had trouble getting to wakeboard speeds with much ballast beyond the stock setup until I put a different prop on. (I'm also at higher elevation so double whammy). I ordered the new prop after the first day with upgraded ballast.