Hi SJ! There is no evidence that the R-T distinction is being factored into current or past FICO models (if by "current" one means FICO 8 or earlier).
In other words, as long as two people have identical accounts, utilization, inquiries, derogs, etc. -- then one guy will not have a higher score if he had a history of transacting vs. another guy who has a history of revolving.
This is not surprising because FICO 8 was released several years ago, substantially before the R-T data from the three CRAs became available.
For any visitors to this thread who may not know what SJ is refering to, here is a good article about it.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/realestate/a-focus-on-credit-history-formortgage-approvals.html...
As you can see, Fannie Mae will be incorporating some non-FICO technology (made by TransUnion) into their underwriting product which will add this kind of R-T analysis into its decisions. This is supposed to happen in about 7 months from now. I am sure that the R-T distinction will eventually be a big part of conventional credit scores soon (e.g. FICO 9 or 10), though it's always possible it might take years to adopt the new models.
As far as your second question, we had a long talk about that on a recent thread. I think that the view of folks on the thread was that people who Pay To Zero (pay their credit cards to $0 before they report) will probably benefit from Transactor status just as much as people who PIF (if by that we mean wait until their statements report positive balances, and then pay the full amount after the statement cuts but before it is due). I was less sure of this than some other folks but I was more convinced by the end of the discussion.
