Hopefully someone that knows what they are talking about will see your questions and answer them, but I think confluence has to do with how tightly the streamlines are spaced on a weather map. The more tightly space (higher confluence) the more likelihood of precipitation and storm enhancement. So, when we heard in the main thread someone saying that confluence looked lower, that is a good thing for this specific storm because if it gets too juiced up, the primary low is more likely to go more north into the Ohio valley, and bring in more warm air aloft over us.
Now someone can correct me. Except @bncho. He's on my sh&t list for calling me old.