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Nope. Gave up on this. After slotting in three answers and staring for a while, I went to the cheaty bits of the internet to get a couple of clues. Didn't manage to parse either of them, even with the answer in front of me. Found another themed one that wasn't even in the dictionary. So I couldn't be bothered after that.
Most of the time I like Paul, but sometimes he's too clever for his own good.

Aaaaaargh finished and didn't get the '5/9 of this' until I came here. Quite clever really :-)

I like a challenge but it should be entertaining as well as demanding ,this became a boring chore.

snowwhite: I’ve always understood your point about ‘????????’. My point is that, if you insert the words in the clues, they make no sense. Eg 9ac: ‘Take, for the auditor: ????????? of this?’ When the answer is then a word in the clue.
Or 25ac: ‘Losing time, use ???????? of this on: ????????? of this?’
The ‘of this’ in each case is superfluous on your reading, and renders the clues nonsensical.

Edit by Admin - I have removed two words which I am informed are answers

dhope: I was entertained and challenged, and once I’d tumbled to the device it was if anything over far too quickly.

Well I have found all bar one of the 5/9ers, but I am blowed if I know what Paul is getting at with his "5/9 of this?". I have exhausted my 'counting' ideas: #clues, #letters; I kind of see why each light I've found could be seen as "a sort of 5 9" ( apart from 9 itself, which feels different) - but why Paul's precise phrasing? Am I wrong in assuming that the phrasing matters?

jvector, the "5/9 of this" has been discussed at length upthread.
It is indeed a counting of letters.
Think of "this" in meta terms: What are you doing? What is in front of you? Etc.

... once I had got to the bottom of page 3 of the comments, I fell upon the denotation of Paul's "this" and thus the significance of '5/9 of this?'. Devious (*). Thank you for the nudge, folks. I was in danger of being Mr Grumpy all evening :-)

(*) - i.e. very clever, but I'm not sure if I like it or not!

... can't parse 14a, though. Looks to me like it wants a definition, unless something is doing double duty?

Agreed on 14, it's awkward IMO, I had to assume double duty.