- Draw order is only used if the render order on the layer is set to manual.
I would recommend creating your own layer for (eg 2D World) and changing the sort order to be manual.
- Not normal but is doable. As you mentioned, it is preferred to have all the sprites on one or a couple of images. Texture Packer is supported here that helps make it a lot easier: Is it possible to use Texture Packer? Or you can create multiple sprites within the Sprite Editor itself on PlayCanvas by creating frames and then making sprite assets from those frames: https://developer.playcanvas.com/en/user-manual/2D/sprite-editor/#editing-texture-atlases