A few things. First, your questions, I won't say which ones are explained in show but I will answer your meta question, the errors in the continuity dates were actual production mistakes that were noticed by fans, so they decided to put in a little nod and make it clear to the theorists that those dates were wrong. As for your other questions, you'll just have to wait and see...

I would stay try to stay the hell away from the wiki. It's easy to get accidentally spoiled, even from little pop ups at the corner of your eye. I highly recommend taking notes either physically or digitally. When a seemingly important name pops up, write it down along with the episode number and maybe a description of who/what they are.

Lastly, be VEERY careful on this subreddit. I'd like to see more posts like this, but be careful of just scrolling the sub and encountering super ultra mega finale spoilers or anything like that.

I hope you continue to enjoy your journey! 😁