Bienvenido!
With regards to item one, the reasoning given is system load for current mechanics. There is MOD working on different load parameters, but I havent tried it.
With regards to item 2, it is called "nerd polling", for reaching content, etc. For reference , you dont have to nerd pole, you can just start stacking ladders. Nerd polling saves you a few milliseconds.
2 blocks of wood for protection will work for a couple of days.
From a personal point of view, I subscribe to the "original" Zombie genre. Now, while the resident evil franchise is pretty cool and has some entertaining movies, the current state of 7D2D Zs are good enough for me, I even remove puking cops via MOD.
Some Zombies do "climb" :), from a certain point of view, beware of spider Z and dogs...and snakes /yikes.