Yes
No
Yes: in terms of Monorail as long as you can still make tracks then, he's your guy, the dude can do all 4 stations: Junk, Metal, Plastic and Glass, Hippie only has three stations and Lisa two both with no premium payouts.
No: in terms of this event, not faster or larger quantities crafted by him, it simply makes you do less cycles.
Kinda like adding a small weight to your weightlifitng, you may not notice it but it does do a little something, something.
In the short term though...i reserve judgement until we find out whether this is a permanent or limited time event.
As long as you started it im sure you can finish it, but if not then 1 more character to send doesnt hurt does it?