ok so answering your questions: (trust me im a wr holder)
1. bastions are worthless unless its the one with a bridge and exposed gold blocks 
2. yes, make the stone sword, but always see what u have, if somehow u got more iron (more than 4) see what u can do, prioritize pickaxes overall
3. if u have a village always loot it, but be sure its the first one so u dont lose time, get the food, beds (i recommend 4 beds, 1 for settting spawn and 3 for a 1 cycle) and kill the golem
4. nah u dont need a village, if theres surface lava just burn cows, pigs, sheep or chicken until u have a decent amount of food to the nether -> i got wr sometimes without villages, so dont worry about that

im not a ssg player, just rsg, but ik how to say about seeds, does the ruined portal have any gold blocks? what's the strat to get pearls? if there's no way to quickly get pearls then the seed wouldnt be good for a ssg

plain and open areas, village and lava pool; if no village, just lava pool, its worth trying (btw i have the wr with just a lava pool, nothing else), with just lava then kill chicken and break gravel while killing blazes then u can have a run, and obviously, villages are ideal, what i said is just a exception, but if no village, no lava, nothing else, reset. (btw use the village to get arrows) if u want to talk to me just send me a message in discord than i will answer
gl in ur runs!