Re weight distribution, already you are going light weight, so I suspect you won't find much of a difference with more stuff on rear. With more load than you are using, I do prefer evening out fore aft load for handling, but I have no idea what weight you're talking about and "feel" for handling isn't something one can describe in writing anyway.
I agree that as you go lighter and lighter it matters less and less. That said, I found that I had good luck with using only front panniers and the tent on top of the rear rack at about 30 pounds base. I enjoyed that setup. It worked well at 22 pounds too.
When I went lighter yet, I tried other setups that all worked okay. Most split weight between front and rear in some fashion, usually with no effort to get the weight low. I typically used some kind of bar roll and strapped stuff on the back in some manner usually without panniers. With less that 14# of base gear weight split between the front back and a little backpack there isn't enough in any one place to matter all that much in how the bike handles.
Before my long campaign to shed gear weight, when I packed heavier, I tried to put heavier more compact items low and in the front and it seemed to make a big difference. These days I just try to distribute them around a bit without much concern and mostly worry about where they fit and whether items I will need will be easy to find and get to.