L vs U shaped strongback spacers: I notice a change from Nick's books to the videos -- worth the extra effort?

Strips -- now this might be a holy war issue, but the question is regarding 3/16 vs 1/4. The pros and cons seem to be 3/16 is lighter, easier to bend, and gives a slightly higher yield from a given board. Quarter inch is the defacto standard, is stronger and gives a little bit more "oops" tolerance as a first time builder. I am leaning toward 1/4. Anything else I should consider?

Strip Length and strip joints: My local supplier has 16' cedar, but I am leaning against it for two reasons: 1) 16' strips mean I need over 32' of space and infeed/outfeed support. When stripping with shorter strips I assume I would want to make sure to vary the location of the joints. I.e. not have all the joints line up on the same form -- correct?

Staple vs Less: I intend on building the hull stapled and will see how it goes before deciding on the deck.

Skeg: The Petrel Play video series includes a skeg. As little more than a novice paddler, I don't have the experience to weigh the pros/cons, but lean against adding the complexity unless there are strong reasons to add one.

My mind is still swimming with additional questions but other than the skeg question I'm going to hold them till the appropriate place in the build process.