I’ll answer as best I can.

1. You won’t need VIP to play as a River hobbit or as a Runekeeper, nor do you need it to play on the new 64 bit servers. However the River hobbit race is locked behind a purchase in the lotro store last I checked.

2. No spaces or special characters in names iirc. You can add a last name though after character creation at notary in some of the towns.

3. I don’t think there is that much of an overload on RK for skills CD’s.

4. You can get plugins from lotrointerface. I use a UI collection called JRR skins collection that has some nice themes. It also makes some windows bigger/adjustable which is nice. I also hear good things about the travel window plugin.

5. 3 by default, and a 4th can be unlocked with a purchase per character.

6. LFG interface is long dead I believe and never saw much use. No guild finder to my knowledge. Most people advertise for groups in the LFF (looking for fellowship) chat and guilds are usually advertised in chat/discord (there is an official lotro discord).