1) I think it's not that big of an issue
2) Not that much of a big deal, i love xcom
3) From what i hear there's just too much of stuff, scrolls everywhere, lots of trinkets and magic weapons
4) 4 is too little, 5 is good, 6 would be a drag to manage inventory and 1 more char to controll during the fights, i think the game is designed for replayability, so not beeing able to see all tehris stories and have a second playthrough seems also good
5) yeap thats weird
6) its okay by me
7) yeah, twisted feelings, it seems a waste of resources, but it does helps with atmosphere
weird you didn't mention how unbalanced things seems right now, but a lot of good points raised(either on not agreeing with many), good post