Hello Chad,
Items like changing speed and frame rate simultaneously have to do with render order (AKA changing the hierarchy of the processing of effects). By nesting you can trick the render order to get the specific effect that you want. For other effects, like blur and masks, changing the stacking order in the Effect Controls panel can change the render order for a wildly different effect.
You can get different effects when changing the render order. The effect you wish to pull off requires changing the render order. It's a very interesting topic, but there isn't a whole bunch of info on this subject. It's talked about quite a bit more in the After Effects realm.
Let me know if you need further info. BTW, glad you were able to figure this out.
Thanks,
Kevin
