I don't believe that this would be 'damaging,' per se. But there's still correlation between rankings for a keywords and not only the inclusion of that word in the title, but the position of that word in the title. I would therefore recommend the titles all begin with a letter - preferably the first letter of the most relevant keyword/phrase for that page.

Is there a reason for the exclamation mark? Maybe an attempt at manipulating CTR or something?

In my experience, penalties are not passed through a 301 redirect.

Think about how open this would be to abuse?? You get a domain blacklisted then just 301 redirect it to a competitor? It would be too easy for people to completely abuse that so I can't see, just on that practical level, how passing a penalty through a 301 redirect would ever be a consideration.

Where I have dealt with websites that have been penalised and have subsequently set up new domains and 301 redirected the old ones, I've never seen a penalty passed through that redirect.

In my experience, penalties are not passed through a 301 redirect.

Think about how open this would be to abuse?? You get a domain blacklisted then just 301 redirect it to a competitor? It would be too easy for people to completely abuse that so I can't see, just on that practical level, how passing a penalty through a 301 redirect would ever be a consideration.

Where I have dealt with websites that have been penalised and have subsequently set up new domains and 301 redirected the old ones, I've never seen a penalty passed through that redirect.