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In general, when adjusting, you want to go wide (more enemies), rather than tall (elite). The balance of 2e is such that always facing level +1 opponents ends up feeling extremely unfun to most players. So its probably save to slap elite on things that are below the party's level to adjust them up, but you'll generally want to avoid putting elite on things that start off above the party. Everything will turn into a non-fun boss encounter style feel if you add it too often, even with extra characters.
I've been running an extinction curse game with 5 players, and my general approach has just been not to adjust at all, so in that sense I've been running things easier, but most encounters still feel well tuned -- the group also isn't a min-max group and routinely does "stupid" things in character that make things harder. The net result has been good.
I also ran a 7 player Age of Ashes (but only routinely had 5-6 players show up -- was an after work group and life/travel impacted a lot) When we had 6+ I would add on an extra opponent whenever the fight allowed me to simply (of course sometimes the battlefields got too crowded to do so). I used elite more often then as well, but that's when I really discovered how unfun its overuse can be).
For treasure, I mainly winged it. Often not adjusting treasure at all, but at major milestones (end of book and/or arrival at a major trade location) would do a quick check in on what character wealth was, what all the fundamental runes were at, etc. And would often do a bulk gp grant to get people back where they should be, when they're able to shop. That worked well for 5 players and has been very easy.
For six, I think I would do something more like: since most runes end up coming from looted opponents gear, the fact that you're adding extra opponents should generally keep the fundamental/property runes in a good balance. (And is another argument for adding opponents instead of elite) I'd probably also double all "coin/gems/art object" rewards. Pure "treasure" is normally a small part of the total wealth, so x2 (compared to x1.5) will slightly increase it, but we're still overall behind since we haven't scaled all the non-treasure/non-carried loot. Finally, I'd look for 1-2 items per character over each 3 level span to seed in to existing treasure piles.
Can't give any advice about slow leveling. I normally use milestone, and will probably continue to do so as I start (tomorrow!), but I'm going to track xp for the first few levels just to see how well its matching the milestones and the player's approach to mainlining the MSQ versus side quests, etc.
I know when I ran the 1e version, we basically completely dropped the army subsystem and didn't feel anything was lost -- we did a couple of extra narrative missions of the PCs sabotaging Pitax's armies or various things of that nature instead.
Sorry, I have no advice on the last topics you raised.
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Does anyone have alternative suggestions for Chapter 8? This chapter is really weak compared to the rest - it's too ambitious a concept for the page count it has. I can't imagine running this without rewriting it.
I assume there will be pdf maps available somewhere? I'm hoping there's a printable version of the hexmap specifically to help with kingdom building/tracking exploring.
For alternatives for content taken from the 1e version of the AP (chapters 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10) I'd suggest looking through the 1e Kingmaker forum here since it has 12-ish years of GM feedback and alternative ideas on it.
There's a printable version of the Stolen Lands map at the back of the Player's Guide, although if you put them in a four page spread they don't line up super well for some reason.
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In my experience a 25-50% bonus HP on solo monsters has the effect of making a fight last 1 round longer. Which sometimes can be enough to make it more interesting -- typically with solo opponents who have unique/interesting special abilities or spells to cycle through. It tends to be less interesting on brute or rogue type opponents. Some PFS scenarios have played with an "increase HO by ~25-50% AND either quickened (stride/strike) OR some on-level buff precast on them (blur, stoneskin, etc) OR +4 damage (double normal elite).
The bonus HP + quickened I feel works pretty well -- the quickened doesn't combine for double special abilities/spells, so its not a massive damage spike. A fourth attack is almost never good, but a step/stride away is back to trading 25% of the bosses actions for on average about 20% of the parties actions while still using its other actions to make things dangerous. But it can be too strong in low levels, when the party doesn't have versatility and needs to use strike and run tactics. This can be a hard counter to that. It can also be a bit too strong on rogue-like opponents with easy/natural ways to get invisibility/solo flat footed.
The bonus HP + bonus damage (but not bonus accuracy/defenses) I think has also worked fairly well when its duo/solo bosses. I wouldn't do it to ramp up a 4-opponent group as the damage scales a bit too much/too many actions benefiting from it.
The bonus HP+buff has been a bit less interesting, typically just prolonging the fight even more. If you're at a level with dispel magic comes into play, I think its more useful and encourages its use, and or other spell counters (glitterdust, faerie fire, etc)
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I tend to boost the number of creatures by the percentage above 4 for mooks.
For boss monsters I make them elite and give them 50% more hit points.
Probably not a perfect upwards difficulty modifier, but easier to run and modify quickly.
For a boss encounter, I might also throw in some weaker monsters along with the boss to boost the challenge if I think that fits better.