(1)
See attached screenshots.
Content of the "Delay" column is WRONG and misleads A LOT.
Only "Default escalation period" value is used for calculate displayed operations' delay.
There is a small exception - for operations with several steps and with the individual delay it is calculating as another puzzle - for one step the default period is used, for all rest steps in this operation - individual delay is used <- it's again WRONG and also misleads already second time.

Server is ok - it execute operations according to individual operation delays - just has been tested.
This problem related only to the frontend.

(2)
Let's consider only 2.0 version:
It's not possible to intuitively understand what next strings mean:
"Escalation period" <- on configuring, "Period (sec)" <- on view !
They are related to (or affect on ) current operation step(s) or previous or next ?

To fix these unclear strings I **strongly** suggest to chance them:
on Action tab:
"Default escalation period (minimum 60 seconds)" -> "Default operation step duration"
"(seconds)" -> "(minimum 60 seconds)"
on "Operations tab"
"Escalation period" -> "Step duration"
"Period (sec)" -> "Duration (sec)"

Also - documentation is not perfect in this area and has to be improved.
http://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.0/manual/config/notifications/action/escalations