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Great answers from both responders, and I agree - every category needs a default hub page that is linked to preferably directly in your breadcrumb, and all pages within that series should reference it in link canonical. So, to help answer your questions: 1. No, its not preferrable and is probably hurtful to your campaign to not have a physical link to the primary page you are referencing in your rel canonical in that categorical series 2. Yes, using pagination and rel-next, rel-previous is a solid option which limits page load issues. Adding filters (often seen in the left hand navigation in context) is also very helpful in keeping the total results lower. 3. Likely because you are not sending strong signals to Google that you believe the hub pages are best for your visitors. By adding those links to the breadcrumb permanently, and by referencing those directly in internal links, etc, you will send the signal to Google that those pages are important, and Google will begin to utilize those. Hope this helps.

Thanks Mat for your reply. Why do you think the markup is horrible?