Your doing fine dude, very specific answers to very specific questions. I think I'm understanding it. When reducing poly's in the fashion we are talking about (which is needed for my mesh in my opinion):
a) ensure geometry isnt affected.
b) keep reducing until shading looks wierd, then undo.
c) primarily accomplished by deleting edge/verts or merging verts.
d) use preserve UVs... that doesnt always work perfectly, but actually it wont be a big deal in this area of the mesh.
Any other points?
Thanks man, if thats correct above and you have no other tips I think I got it!