If there is more than one transistor on the heatsink, or it is chassis mounted, you need an insulator between the transistor and the heatsink. If it is a single transistor on a a single heatsink you do not NEED an insulator. The benefit is a slightly better thermal coupling, the downside is the collector voltage is on the heatsink body. Also some transistors have all plastic bodies (many TO-126) and do not need an insulator.
I bought some of these small heatsinks from Mouser, looks like Digikey carries them also:
https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=274-3AB
I use them to 'upgrade' TO-220 and TO-126 transistors that do not have 'sinks originally, but I feel would benefit from them. I have not tried them as an addition to the silver aluminum originals, they may be too small, but you could mount them back to back if there is room.
The bar between the caps is the common ground, with multiple connections. It is correct. Components that are truly 'in series' do not have
any other connections between them, so the current that flows through one must flow through the other.
View attachment 1878039
The components in the red box are in series, there is no connection to any other component between them, current that flows through one
must flow through the other. The components in the blue box are in parallel, both ends of both components are connected together, current can flow through either one. The components in the green box are neither series nor parallel (just like your filter caps). Study Kirchhoff's Laws for more detail, if you are interested (maybe TMI

).