Hi there,
@chimdee welcome to KNIME Community Forum!
The reason why certain columns are not seen in Nominal Value Row Filter (or Splitter) node is because they have more than 60 unique values. In KNIME domain is not automatically calculated for those columns. To solve this you can use Domain Calculator node and uncheck option Restrict number of possible values. For some nodes in node description this is mentioned so it will probably be added for two mentioned above as well. Domain information for columns can be checked in output view under spec tab.
Now to your row skipping. In Excel Reader node there is option Read entire data sheet, or…. You should uncheck that option and specify from which row to read data. The row number is an absolute number from Excel sheet.
Now to Alteryx switch. Here is topic you can check. There you have links to another two interesting topics and also link to just published guide From Alteryx to KNIME. Hope it will help.
Happy KNIMEing
Br,
Ivan