1. See I would normally agree with you, the only reason I don't in this case is because this is a game that wants to be replayed, and so having unskippable stuff makes that a slog. It's like unskippable cutscenes in games, I get the philosophical justification for them, but it murders replayability.
2. That's a good point. I like them as a "are you paying attention" tool, I just wasn't sure if that was intentional.
3. Fair enough, in that case I'd say it's only a pacing problem. Having something silly happen like the little banker guy come and forecloses on your dungeon when you get too deep in the hole would make for a better experience without taking away from the difficulty (imho).