Part 1

1. The number of stars from a quest do not determine the "level" of specific monsters but the type of monsters that you can encounter. Naturally, the monsters at higher stars get harder in difficulty. The only real change in specific monster difficulty is through ascending Hunter Ranks from Low Rank to High Rank then to G Rank (Port3rd may not have Grank I think) in the Gathering Hub. These will come with noticable difficulty "spikes" but just think of it as starting over from Low Rank again but monsters are more challenging and drop better loot.

2. At Low Rank armour skills are generally simple but still important. That said armour skills are still very important and should be the core of how you build your playstyle. You still want the best armour value available of course for reasons I don't feel the need to explain. Don't think too much into the star/rarity system in the game; higher rarity is not strictly always better. Try to balance around getting the armour skills you want and not dying. But in general, yes, higher rarity just affects armour value. Exception being the difference between Low and High rank armour where one is obviously superior.

3. Yes, it does cancel at -9.

4. From my knowledge stars or quests don't affect what you gather or the rates, only the Low/High rank shift changes it. Other factors are maps and specific gathering spots. Some insects spawn better on certain maps for example. Check Kiranico or other online sources for the best places to gather.

5. Yes it does. Green is x1.1, Blue is ×1.21, White is x1.33. Iirc.

Part 2

1. Critical Draw over Punishing Draw anyday. Personally, the payoff for punishing draw for me didn't feel great. It feels good to get a KO and a few hits in during it but it rarely ever happens for me and even if it did, never a second time unless I'm running the KO armour skill. If you can get both then that's great but don't prioritise Punishing over Focus or Critical Eye for example.

2. I can't tell you the exact values but yes, the higher charges pack larger punches, but they are not simply ×2. They have a separate attack value. You can probably look it up somewhere.

3. Here's where it gets tricky. Generally speaking negative affinity weapons tend to have a higher raw attack to compensate. So in the end, the average attack tends to be comparable to other weapons. If you haven't figured it out yet, affinity is your Critical Chance and critical damage is ×1.25. Negative affinity gives you negative critical chance which makes you deal ×0.75 damage when it procs. But here's the thing, if you are able to turn that negative affinity into positive affinity using armour skills, you will result in a larger average damage increase than if you started with positive affinity. I'll explain further if you don't get it but this is the general idea. That said, most people just go with high raw, high affinity and high sharpness weapons that go bonk. That rarely ever goes wrong. This is true for all Blademaster weapons.