By lofting do you mean, just sorta smushing and fluffing and moving it between the hands? I'm still grasping the terminology that people use.

And holes in the baffles...? The mesh itself? Or perhaps holes where the mesh is purposely not stitched to the polyester (pretty sure ours are polyester). I began to wonder/realize today that some bag-making techniques might not stitch down the mesh all the way around. Like bzh said, for ease of construction, and, if you're into it, customizing where the down goes while using the bag.

It hadn't occurred to me, but you're probably right about the down rotting! hmmm...

I went ahead and opened a baffle today. Put in 3 good size pinches, and seamed it back up. As a side note, I used an empty/clean/dry almond milk bottle as a funnel. Had cutoff the bottom which is wide and inserted the top, which is skinny, into the hole I made and stuffed the down in through the bottle into the baffle. The hole I picked in the seam was only about 2.5-3", so sewing it back up didn't take too awful long. Used backstitch and ladder stitch after that. Just mentioning this for posterity. I use backstitch nearly everywhere, and so far, my stitching holds wherever I've used it.

Now I'm beginning to think: if it is that the down has rotted, and if it is that we've lost this much down through the seams (still unsure whether it's that or if it's all just in the feet, closer inspection required), as long as the shell fabric is good, refilling with down every couple years isn't really a bad deal with how cheap bulk down is compared to a whole new bag...