First up, I am liking this season, but I do just watch the show and know that there is tons of behind the scenes stuff going on. But hey that's ok. I ain't got time to watch the feeds all night long for at least 4 days a week, so ignroance is bliss. We tried just doing after dark one season, and jesus it became a chore trying to ingest that much shit going on.
As far as the Survivor comparison, you are 100% correct on the dumbass "twists." In fact, I really wish BB would stop the fucking bringing back past players. It really sucks, unless it's an all star season. However, on the editing, Survivor gives us even a smaller glimpse of the overall picture, then BB broadcast does. There have been multiple times I have felt Survivor fucked with the edits to paint someone in a bad/good light just to score virtue points. The biggest example was the season where they demonized Will and Dan for going after Shareen. I am convinced the woman was just an absolute cunt to live with who hid behind her race and past, and Survivor ran with that, and totally threw two dudes under the bus, to the point of publicly crucifying them in the reunion show. (To be fair, Dan was a douche already, but his blow up with Shareen was not one of the reasons why)