1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiUmRujYUrA
2. We can't really determine this until we're playing, but we do know they're making this a standard MMO, so good chance it will play and flow like every other MMO in the past 7 years.
Alpha really means little as you don't really see such a large gap of changes between Alpha and beta (ignoring the obvious), you'll see some different stuff like more shaders and a few more options here and there, but Alpha is pretty much what the final game will be like as the alpha
for XIV ARR is a stress test more than a bug finding mission which means they're very confident in the design they have completed.
Btw, there's already a feature in XIV 1.0 that allows you to use other race's hairstyles that isn't active, that will likely be the "more choices for hairstyles" that get put in by late beta or after launch.
We have
FAR MORE to worry about if they spent longer than a few months on the CC.