Yup, Mathias' thread had those ideas. Shortly later, some of his UI was implemented into the game, specifically the flashy level-up screens and rewards.
Nope. It was much higher durability costs than that. By simply playing the game you would lose income overall. You would lose entire pieces of gear. This is why you had a huge subset of the playerbase play in only stock gear.
Yup, the video keeps getting removed. It's a clip from a TV show. I'm pretty sure if it's on american TV broadcasting then it's approved content. otherwise if so many people were offended it would be pulled... because we live in PC culture.