1. Not really. You can do fine with spending an hour or two per day. Even for raids.

2. People leave, people come. Most of the hype train I believe already left and that is mostly a positive.

3. For the most part. There will be idiots everywhere but best is to ignore them or if need be report them if they actually harras.

4. Nah. You can start your own linkshell and add your friends to that(I know a person that did that) then just pull from that. It's just for chat and asking for help.

5. EU here so sorry.

6. Positive: finding friends you can enjoy the game and the story with, that will support you with what you are trying to achieve
Negative: unable to find those friends and then being forced to DF stuff and get abused for wanting to enjoy the cutscenes

7. Most fun... hmm could be fun runs(unorthodox party setups to run dungeons(like 4 dps, 3 heals and a tank, 1 heal 3 dps, 2 dps and a heal - and such like), or blind runs(doing something for the first time... don't read it up... figure it out on your own), treassure hunting and having half the team be in DoH or DoL gear with DoH/DoL weapons of course(watch that epic DPS fly by hehe).