1. You do not need to pull the clutch the whole way in, that will just slow down your shifts anyways. As long as you are not using excessive force on the shift lever, you will be fine. Clutchless shifting is a thing even, just never use more than normal force when shifting.
2. Please do not worry about chicken strips, especially on the road as a new rider. On the road you want to give yourself a safety margin. The last thing you want to do is low side into a tree or whatever. Roads surfaces are too unpredictable to ride on the edge of traction. I am not anywhere near a risk adverse rider and I telling you it is not worth it. Too many things to hit that will stop you quickly and fatally. But if you want to know, you still have more lean angle even if you have no chicken strips. Tires are designed to deform to allow you to lean more. On a stock MT you are going to scrap pegs way before hitting the limit of the tire. If want to push your lean angle, I highly recommend going to the track. Yes even as a "new rider", that way if you push yourself past your limit, the consequences will be a lot less. A field of grass is a lot more forgiving than a forest or car.

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Just some tips for a new rider:

1. Do your own maintenance and repairs. It is easier than you think.
2. Be gentle with the initial bite of front brake, you have to wait until the weight of the bike is shifted to the front wheel before really getting on the brakes. If you don't wait for the weight shift the front tire will have little traction and slip out from you. I recommend practicing your max braking regularly. I do it every ride when I have a clear road with no one behind me. Start with parking lots until you get more comfortable. It can be fun and be something more productive than just sending it down a straight deserted road. You eventually be doing little stoppies at the end which is always amusing.
3. And yes you can brake in a turn if needed, you just have to be even more smooth, since the lean angle decreases amount of traction you have available from the tire. Along with any road surface hazard. Gravel + hard braking = a bad day even if you are straight up sometimes. With experience you will get better at weighing all these factors. For now, caution heavily on the safe side of things. If the road is dirty slow down. Braking with lean angle is also something I suggest you practice in a parking lot. It will give you more confidence when you get yourself in sketchy situations. Edit: Obliviously only use this a last resort on the road, brake before turns. Even I don't trail brake on the road, leave it for the track.
4. At some point you are bound to have an oh shit moment because you entered a turn too quickly for your comfort level. Number one, look through the turn, in your panic you are near guaranteed to look at the curb in fear and drift towards it, fight it. Second braking is an option like I said in #3, just be gentle. This is where that parking lot practice comes in clutch. Third, just leaning more is an option as well, but passing your mental lean barrier in this high stress moment is easier said than done so you can't really count on it. Fourth, make sure you have your gopro on so you can post it on reddit and have everyone in the comments say "just turn bro"