a. which samurai sword maker would be the best? paul chen? bugei? or cold steel? other? looking at the 2,000 dollar or UNDER range. dont care to spend an arm and a leg on one.

b. does it really matter if the bladed is folded or just forged?

My choices, in order of preference, would be Bugei, Cold Steel, and Paul Chen. You will pay more for the Bugei than the other two. If you get a Cold Steel katana, I would go with the Warrior Series. For a sword you are going to actually use, the mirror polish isn't worth the extra price, IMO.

b) it used to matter back in the day when they were making all the steel by hand, it made the carbon distribution uniform therefore a more uniform steel,
that was before there were steel mills turning out bars of 1050 by the dozen,

nowadays it doesn't really add in anything except aesthetic value, and even with a cutting polish (not "mirror" more utility) you can see some great activity.

Bugei has a wonderful rep, they are paul chen blades (except the custom stuff which IIRC is Howard Clark) but not run of the mill paul chen, they have high quality standards and are very closely involved in the runs of the swords from the dailen forge (chen)

just FYI