I've got a general overarching problem here along with a specific question about bearing installation.

Background
Been tracking really obnoxious "road noises" which I fear are related to bad wheel bearings. I'm not getting that heavy "rumble" it is more of a vague "concrete block on concrete floor" without the metallic sound. I can't pin the location of the noise down and I can't hear it clearly or at all when I have the car running up on jackstands. Seems unrelated to the speed I'm traveling, but it is certainly more audible when I'm driving at slow speeds.

I don't think it is brake-binding as the pads a still quite thick and rear shoes are barely worn. Could be bearings, but I'm not sure the noise seems to come from the whole car, not just one or two wheels in particular.

Among this background noise, there was a clearer noise emanating from the passenger front wheel (which went away when I changed out the whole front rotor, bearing, and caliper). This is the particular issue I'd like some advice on.

I found the passenger wheel would not spin freely and there was a definitely intermittent catch. When I removed the caliper, I found the backside of the rotor had been heavily polished. Pads were looking fine with nice even wear, but I had to use a prybar to get the caliper off.

I've got a nice set of reasonably new SS braided brakelines, so I figure the main problem here was the caliper (transplanted from a 65) so I went ahead and swapped a good caliper from my stash.

When re-greasing the front outer bearing I noticed that the bearing was neatly scorched along the middlepoint of the rollers. I compared it to a spare front outer bearing and found no similar "scorch" I figured this was a problem and replaced the bearing with a "better" one from my parts stash.

I also noticed that when I installed a replacement rotor, bearing, and retaining hardware, there was a nice "sweet spot" where the rotor was held firm but still spun readily with no play. Unfortunately the castle nut did not quite line up with a cotter-pin hole at this spot. To get the cotter key in, I had to either loosen the nut slightly or tighten the nut slightly.

Loosening the nut introduced some play into the rotor. This was the "setting" that old rotor had been at and I figure it may have played a part in the problems I was having with the wheel. Tightening the nut slightly removed the play but caused the rotor to spin much less freely and I worry that this will shorten the life of the newer bearing I just installed.

Either setting seems bad and while the specific noise from this corner of the car is now gone, I am still plagued by general road noise.

Soo... how tight should front wheel bearing hardware be?

What the heck is causing all this other noise from my wheels?

I've been into most every part of the 122S mechanical system and I'm at a loss as to why I cant trace the source of the problem. It is just normal??