The starting date can't be set by the league creator until the league is full, and I assume almost all PLs start pretty immediately after the league fills up since it's rare that somebody wants to wait to start to push that button to start it.
You're 100% right on with the suggestions. We should be able see info on league size, number of league games (i.e. how many against each team), and number of playoff teams.
Don't ask what sort of Chunks they are, you probably don't want to know. Blowing Chunks since Season 4!