I see that in v7.35, two new identifiers were introduced to return the server and total times from the online timer - $onlineserver and $onlinetotal - I also noticed, however, that $online is exactly the same as $onlinetotal, so I'm curious as to why $onlinetotal was added.

The $online identifier is an old identifier that returns either $onlinetotal or $onlineserver, depending on whether "show total time in status windows" is enabled or not. The new identifiers return the actual time for that type.

Ah, I see. I never knew that the value of $online was dependent on whether "show total time in status windows" was checked, so thanks for pointing that out.