1 - yes, just about the same. 

2 - I take these directly from other Chinese-language sources. Some of these essays are written by children, and there are occasionally typos like that. I don't change them unless a native speaker insists on it, because I'm not confident enough to make source-level changes. In terms of the "de" issue - and I'll probably get crucified for saying this - I think it's ok to be a liiiitle wishy washy there, colloquially speaking, one of those "if you know the rules you can break them" type of deals. I notice a lot of people getting very loose with which "de" they use in informal contexts. Especially kids seem to default to 的 for many things. I don't know if that's all just mistakes, or if that's just a trend or what. I do remember 5 years ago one of my grammar teachers mentioned that the government had considered officially making 的 the only "de" - it would supplant 得 and 地 in all writing - but I never heard anything else about that and it seems a little unlikely, so... anyway. I don't know how acceptable that is or not, but you're definitely not the only one who's pointed that out. 

3- thanks for the notification! Fixed.