Hand 1, pre and flop are both fine, turn you should be betting for value and as a by product, protection against draws. You will be getting value out of 22-55, 6x, FDs, OESDs, possibly a GSSD, and overs might decide to chase one more time. When the river comes and we are unimproved, obviously we check behind.

Hand 2, meh. I don't hate it, I don't love it. Betting smaller like you said gets the same job done. You have a decent amount of equity when behind, but realize you're only drawing to 6 effective outs, 4 if you're worried he has AK.