Point #1
PR Managers aren't that important. I guess you could consider the $3000/wk to pay for a basic as an expense you don't need. I agree with your assessment. Its really splitting hairs though.
Point #2
Every player is an investment. As soon as you add a player to your team he is ultimately depreciating before your eyes. If he's young you can improve him and thereby beat the depreciation but that requires an investment in training and less than ideal roster. As for how much an "oldie" loses value. First of all, I trypically rent a player for 1-2 seasons. If he can stay longer than that he is either a trainee or he has remained valuable to me. Every season requires a review of your current condition and then a review of your roster in contention to a title or other condition. Secondly, a player who costs a lot to buy also has a holding cost. If you spend a bunch on a player that is less than you are able to spend elsewhere including more players. Therefore, unless the player is purchased at a super value, he is ultimately just a place setter for cash. Now in my situation I sold 3 players over 33 last week. Two of them I took a 100K loss on resale value. The other I actually gained 50,000 on the sale for a net loss of $150,000. Considering all 3 players helped me advance to Div III I was more than happy to rent them. Overall I had spent 600,000 to retain them. They lost me 150,000 as they were being held. That means overall they had only lost 25% of their value even though I held them each over 1-2 seasons. I would qualify them as good investments.
Lastly, I can pull value from my trainees. In Div III they are finally starting to carry their own weight. I don't think it was a bad idea to advance the way I did. Even though they were not as valuable as the rest of my roster "carried" them.
Point #3
I agree to an extent about the "golden season". This guide was written before overextension tax. Overall this makes it ideal to try to expand your arena before jumping up too high. However, its hard finding the right time to jump to the next division. But there is no reason to stay in Div V or Div IV longer than needed. Unless you are looking to make money off drafting which has also become easier since the odds of getting a good draftee has increased substantially for bot leagues before I published this originally. Overall recent changes has made it a bit more lucrative to take a slower approach to developing a team. However, when the title looks easy enough to grab its best to go ahead and go for it. Mostly because its easier to stay in a higher league than it is to advance up. Overall though I believe arena expansions have value. Although in my case I did overexpand some. Which likely cost me a title shot this season.