this is certainly a good list of questions, but isn't the answer to most of them just good backup hygiene? and how are ai bots a threat to me?

spacemacs ships with evil mode (which gives vim binds) by default, so if you input a space in editing mode it's just a space, and in normal mode it's the leader for chords.

i've had this same problem and to be honest, the way to figure it out is most likely the classic "bisect your config" approach, though i havent taken the time to do that myself.

this was a great read! ive also recently managed to put together an org agenda setup that makes my brain actually do things, but only using priorities which isnt ideal. funny enough, i havent done anything with effort because org has a built in feature for it, but i get overwhelmed every time i look at it because it's also tied in with org clock somehow. using properties to sidestep this is a great idea!