The folder fader adjusts the mix of the children (and anything else) that are routed through it. In normal basic usage, that has the same effect as moving each individual child fader by the same amount, yes. Because if the fun of logarithms, (x+a) + (y+a) = (x+y) + a. I think that is a “yes” to your first question, but...
...if there are any plugins on the folder track that depend on the actual level of their input (compressor, saturation, amp sim, analog emulations, etc) then changing the child faders will affect how those plugins work while changing the folder fader just turns what comes out of the plugins up or down. In those cases they are completely different things, and will not have a 1:1 relationship. Think of the child faders as “pre gain” and the folder as “output”.
The answer to your second question - can you just turn the master track down - is also yes. If you’re going to print the mix and bring it into a separate session for mastering, you really don’t need to, though. Just print it to 32 bit floating point so the file itself doesn’t clip and let the peaks fall wherever they want. If you’re going to do your mastering right in the one project by adding plugs to the master track, then it’s just like the folder thing. Adjusting the master fader won’t change how hard the mix is hitting your master FX chain, but it can be used to adjust your final level after whatever those plugins do.
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