You can't have an 'automatic backup' because how would SRB2 know how to refer to the backup server? The bug will be fixed long before SRB2's next release, I'd hope. Why no to having a checker? Because the MS may sometimes be down for a reason and the bugger would just start it back up, not to mention the fact that sometimes the checker can return a false positive, and start up the MS when it isn't needed, etc.
On a side note, the more the MS integrates with vBulletin (it's pretty integrated right now) the less likely it is that a second MS could ever actually be created. We don't encourage alternative master servers and with good reason, the community is split up enough without having two master servers to choose from, potentially eliminating half the audience of servers.
I can tell you where Wadbase probably is, same place as SigSev (which incidentally is dead), not working with 2.0.5 and above.
EDIT: In other news, 4 day holiday with my laptop and an up to date copy of the MS and SRB2 code, so now is probably your best opportunity to give suggestions for MS related features, because I don't really have much else to do here with my lack of internet.