GARS should not be changing usergroup permissions like that, so double check the permissions for those usergroups under Usergroups -> Usergroup Manager -> Edit Usergroup as well as under Usergroups -> Forum Permissions for specific forums.
As for the count, it does not show on non GARS templates. The first post is the article, the second post is the first comment, the third post is the second comment, etcetera, and if there are multiple pages in the thread, the first post on a subsequent page in a thread would be out of order, so the counts don't show.
Not saying that they cannot be edited to show correctly, just why they were not showing, so try replacing the
GARS - Process Postbit plugin with the following code and see if the counts show correctly.
Code:
global $vbulletin;
if (is_object($vbulletin->gars))
{
$this->templatename = $vbulletin->gars->process_postbit();
if ($show['postcount_garstemp'])
{
$show['postcount'] = $show['postcount_garstemp'];
$post['postcount'] = $post['gar_postcount'];
}
if (!eregi('gars', $this->templatename))
{
$show['postcount_garstemp'] = $show['postcount'];
if ($post['postcount'] - $post['gar_postcount'] == 2)
{
$show['postcount'] = 0;
}
}
}