How can I override the default forums and container pages with a view? I need to override the default pages that come with forums with views. I need to still include the default info as per the screenshots. I can't seem to get the right relationships and the correct aggregation for the counts. Any insight would be appreciated.
You can use Advanced Forum module, which provides many advanced features, and overrides the default forum listing with views and panels. It is not a replacement module for core forum but an enhancement.

If you don't want to use it, you can at least take a look at how they've overriden the core forum listing and make your own implementation.