You got some interesting ideas and I think for the last one may already exist a plugin, if I have understood that correctly.
There is a plugin called Paint selection made by @hayu, what may do what you are asking for. At least, I like it really much.
By the way, I don’t know if you ran out of votes like me, but if not, it would be a good idea to show your support for your own ideas. Votes are cast on the left side of the headline you gave your topics - it is that blue field saying Vote, or Limit in case you got no more free votes. But you can whithdraw given votes from other feature requests if you believe your own requests are more important.
Michelist