I'm pretty sure the pinning is working against you as nobody thinks to check up that high
1) I probably check VHL more often at work than at home, but doesn't affect my productivity in any way. I'm good at buckling down if something needs to be done, but stare at a computer 9 hours a day and there's down to be some downtime.
2) Back in the day I had some friends join the MSFL, and I'm pretty sure one or two of my neighbors made their way to the VHL (or one of it's predecessors) way back when. These days though, just my girlfriend. She actually listened to Kendrick's draft podcast thing back when Olsen was going in the S33 draft and had no idea what was going on, so that was fun.
3) Second yes.