Is there any UE4 equivalent to Unity's "StreamingAssets" folder / "Application.streamingAssetsPath"?

To answer your second question (#2, filepaths): FPaths::ProjectDir(), when used in the Unreal Editor, will return the directory containing your .uproject file; whereas if FPaths::ProjectDir() is used in a windows built/packaged game, it will return <buildDir>\WindowsNoEditor\<yourProjectName>\ .