I can sadly confirm that BOTH of those scenarios dont guarantee a spot in the voting. I was pissed i lost 200 influence for a vote on other useless clans haha.
But they don't end? i've died plenty of times and it always continues just like in warband?
I don't understand your point. There is a vagueness about which features or on or not, and until you can try them out it seems to stay vague.
It's very strange, the tooltip definitely says it unlocks at level 3. I'm also wondering where they said it's not in EA yet. So far I've seen they only have the steam page with features not included in EA, but that is obviously not correct seeing you can craft (even if it's not complete yet).