I assume a lot of us spend a whole lot of time fishing through styles. I clear my style favorites then start collecting favorites again for each song. As time goes on I've become more familiar with the styles I have available and am able to shorten the time spent fishing and sampling.

For #2.
Why not sing the intro then press play? Use a harmonica on the side to get you initial vocal pitch. You can undo the count in as needed.
Or, put in a simple guitar strum for 1 bar then on bar 2 create a hold for the guitar strum.
Like this.
| G | G... | begin singing | | G | etc...
That will give you a pitch reference for your vocal.
If I were singing this song live with an acoustic guitar and no backing track I would at least strum the starting chord. That would be whether I had a band or not.

Does the noise in your head bother me ?