So, to update the answers to my own questions,
1) Can any edits only be viewed in a demo or is it possible to load an edited map into ICON if you change the path?
Edited maps and new maps can be loaded into ICON 1.71, however, to do so, you must articulate the path verbatim, like so:
C:\Program Files (x86)\NCSoft\CohBeta\data\maps\newmap.txt
Updates to come as I figure things out