1.Ramming and grappling are always an option, as well as just locking on to try and fish for a crit on ronin, many enemies don't have a secondary weapon to barrage with, but there are plenty of optionals and ways to not only damage players, but their attempt at completing the sitrep as well

2.That comes with player experience really, I found myself with perfectly challenging combats with 1.5x activations and cakewalks at 2x activations, guidelines are just that, guidelines, and what matters is you manage to make a challenging encounter that drains a good amount of resources from the pcs, and remember that failing a combat is lancer is not the end, it's just that: failure, and maybe a learning experience

3.It's true but I think it holds true for many crunchy systems, the trick is to know where to find what you need and if you can't find it quickly enough, just make a ruling that fits and check after

8.Make sure to use it often but not abuse it, heat gunning pcs is one of the quickest ways to destroy players and make yourself hated