Electrical – Common base configuration, input V-I characteristics

It can be confusing because in a MOSFET the saturation region is something else and they call the "linear" region what would be the "saturation" region in a BJT. Why oh why?

Here's my simplified picture of things for a BJT: -

Note that all the curves for different base currents do not overlap as is commonly shown. If they did overlap there would be no BJT based 4-quadrant multipliers (Gilbert cell). They rely on the saturation region being able to modulate the current for a given CE voltage. Anyway, that's a bit off the mark for your question.

The saturation region does include the scenario when CB is forward biased but I don't think this is particularly helpful - the saturation region (or close to it) must still encompass normal transistor amplification and, as far as I know, this cannot happen when collector and base are forward biased.

Why doesn't further increase in base current cause changes in collector current?

It does up till the point when the collector-base junction is forward biased. The curves look bunched in your diagram (and this is an error basically) but they are still different and for a given low voltage across C-E, the current is proportional to that voltage AND the base current.

Hope this helps.

This is simply not true, the Early effect is present in the common-base configuration as well.

A good example is the cascode configuration, where the cascode transistor is in a CB configuration. Rout depends on the early effect, however it is reduced because of negative feedback. Additional current through a cascode stage decreases Vbe of the cascode transistor, which reduces the impact of the Early effect.