Media Type settings essentially determine the Platen gap, paper thickness, certain ink laydown characteristics and whether to use PK or MK ink.
The Velvet Fine Art coating is possibly different enough from Enhanced Matte coating that their Media Types would not be perfect substitutes.
I can't comment on feeder problems with a 3880. Usually, you can manage the platen gap and the paper thickness in the Advanced Media controls of the Epson driver, so I assume that applies to the 3880 as well. I don't have either that printer or the driver so can't verify.