Hi,
I like to add some comments to the suggestions if I may.
1. I agree, more space would be nice. Last logo I had to remake for the website because the original did not fit.
2. No comment
3. This code is in my eyes not to customise for clients, they are part of the look. Think there is no way to get around it if you want some nice looking items. I like to see more of it what also can be used in other templates. One important one for me is to the align left and align right so you don't need 2 modules in one row. Something like this:
<div class="text_left" >
<div class="text_right" >
4. Agree, but no need to go through FTP. Opening the template files in the backend will also give acces to the files. Only thing you have to do is clear browser cache. Updating through the backend can be tricky, it needs a option to roll back to before thee update. Using FTP is safer for now because you can backup the files/folder. It is faster to replace the files that you have in a backup then restore the whole site using Akeeba.
5. Agree, some new stuff would be nice, the older extensions I hardly use. For sliders I often use Smartslider 3
https://smartslider3.com/ Lots of options.