@markz - the hot glue on the heatsink mount screws is to prevent vibration backout - its a good thing
. The white substance is thermal paste aka heatsink compound and is used to make a surface more heat conductive - also a good thing. The PCB slides into grooves in the aluminum case so there's no way it can bottom out on the case and therefore the paper is not required. It should have the rubber sealer gasket on both end caps (in either clear or black silicone).
@lowberry - you only need to hook up the following wires to get the controller to work: 3 phase wires, 3 hall wires, power/ground and the lock wire. The lock wire must be connected to battery positive. All the other wires are optional. Of course you will need to figure out the correct combo of phase and hall wires or use the self-learn function.
Regarding FOC, it's not clear in the documentation I can find whether or not FOC is implemented in the GPM8F3116A on these boards. I doubt it is, but can not confirm.