Replication from the CA editor would be very useful
Showing the replication state (replicated yes/no - perhaps through icons)
Show last replication date and perhaps if there were modifications since last replication
With the implementation of https://wcm-io.atlassian.net/browse/WCON-38 there should be a button now to replicate which works fine for me.
Regarding exposing the configuration metadata: That would definitely be nice to have.
yes, the "publish this page" button is already implemented, see
http://wcm.io/caconfig/editor/usage.html#Publish_configurations
showing replication state and last replication date is not trivial - as the publish date of the configuration editor page itself is not interesting, but those of the configuration pages below /conf - and there might be more than one for the current configuration context, and in mixed publication state.