1) On Focus: Cacophony of Blades, the description says the reuse is reduced by 30 seconds. Actually, it is reduced 'to' 30 seconds, which is only half the benefit. 2) On Focus: Rianna's Relentless Tune, the concentration is supposed to be removed. When I click on it, a bubble was freed up. However, the next day after the next downtime, I no longer had a free bubble. I can't use anymore buffs than I did before. Another guild member checked this when he did his reset. When he clicked on the focus option, no bubble was freed up.
Any AA ability that reduces resue time still will have to contend with the the hard cap of a spells reuse I believe. As for the ability not free up a slot when the focus is chosen did you make sure you cancelled the spell first? I'll check this on my Dirge and if I have the same problem I will update my post.