Your facts are almost, but not quite correct - Rob's ROM isn't quite stripped.
Here are the rest of your answers:
1) to get the maximum amount of ram free possible, you have to use the kitchen.
2) to have a truly C&S ROM, you have to use the kitchen
3) the current version of the kitchen is stickied to the top of the forum, post #1 in it's thread, always. Rob's ROM is post #1 in this thread.
4) the difficulty level of both the Kitchen and Rob's rom will be about the same for you. Rob's ROM is easier for people who have never heard of .rar formats. You'll have a new rom on your phone a little sooner if you use Rob's ROM. The kitchen's strong suit is that it's customizable to You. You can't hardly go wrong with either choice, and you can always switch to the other at any time.
5) Double posting contributes to the clutter. Your post will be seen in just about any thread.
6) the
stock verizon ROM is available on the verizon website. I think it might be newer than what's on your phone, however.
7) The risk of putting any CE ROM (a windows ROM) is the same. Anything is better than what you currently have. Do not use bootloader ROMs unless you really know what you're doing. Radio ROMs are usually not necessary and have a greater chance of bricking your phone. Rob's ROM and the kitchen are or make CE ROMs only.
Putting an AKU 3.3 or later ROM (from a carrier) on your phone will complicate further mods (because it includes a new bootloader).
9) If you want to backup your contact info, sync it via ActiveSync or back it up using PIMBackup.
10) If you want to backup your entire device, there are commercial software products for that. They do NOT backup up your ROM, however. Restoring a WM5 backup on to WM6 is a bad idea - reinstall your softare.
11) you'll have the same trouble or lack thereof with your iphone software regardless of what you choose. Slightly less if you have a totally stripped ROM from the kitchen.
12) The device is pretty solid...it's hard to brick with a CE ROM update.
13) Rob is definitely not Helmi, nor does he help make the kitchen.
14) Some items are best discussed publicly. PMs do happen when they're the appropriate choice.
15) Rob's ROM is currently a Helmi based ROM, so it's not like a kitchen based ROM or Rob's ROM are fundamentally different on your PPC.