[The Doctor]

Having woken up again, my view would be...

1) Do foams have the same effect on buggies when ran on carpet?

Running foams on buggies is like being a man and wearing a skirt. It's just not the done thing and you will look like a girl. (Apologies to any men reading this who do like wearing skirts; that was not an insult towards you.)

2) Has anybody experienced the same thing?

I have not experienced wearing a skirt, no.

But I do think that racing a car where, as you say, you can just point & squirt (as it were... ) reduces the rate at which you improve your car control ability. This is regardless of what tyres you're running. Basically you want to be running the car as fast as you can based on the capability of your thumbs and the chassis. If you're always crashing because you/the chassis can't handle the power (I have some people in mind who I will NOT name), then you're not learning anything. Except maybe memorising the spare part numbers of the bits that keep breaking. Similarly, if you're just operating within your/the chassis limits then you're also not going to be improving.

3) Should beginners who choose to race in clubman/off road be encouraged to run rubbers (even Venoms in off road), since it will teach them car control before they are able to complete fast laps?

Let them find out for themselves and run what they have first. If they crash all over the place, then we may want to suggest a slower motor, whatever tyres they're running.