"Overwhelming" is what this universe is all about!
1. The only definite miss is that you'd get all your Wave 1 stuff in Wave 2, potentially months after Wave 1 boxes hit retail. The earlier posts in this thread explain the two waves. CGL warned that there might be some swag that could run out in Wave 1 without enough demand to justify another production run for Wave 2 - they said if it happened, it'd be most likely with patches, pins, or dice for the least popular clans (and they mentioned Clan Ice Hellion as the least popular).
1b. A lot of the Kickstarter "exclusives" will be sold on CGL's website, but not distributed to other stores. That should include the dice, pins, patches, and the Legendary mechs pack (described three posts up). Not sure about the digital fiction, that might actually be campaign exclusive.
2. They removed them because their length adds quite a bit to shipping costs so they didn't want to make it the default for whatever pledge levels included one. They're great, but I wouldn't say they're widely used in Battletech. It's still mostly paper hex maps, with a decent amount of people using hexless neoprene mats with 3d terrain.
3. The Beginner Box doesn't have full record sheets; no heat, for example. The Game of Armored Combat box does, and they're in the old style. We'll get access to an experimental app as part of the Kickstarter, and there's also an option for fancier record sheets, but for now it's just the old fashioned ones.
4. Yes, they're like record sheets. No, the rules aren't included. There are free quick start rules up on Catalyst's website, I think, and you'd want to buy the Commander's Edition rules if you decided to dive in. It's a great way to play company-on-company or larger battles.
5. You're right about what they are. I haven't followed what we get... I'd go into the "BTI CGL Kickstarter" Facebook group, search "pilot decks" and read through the responses to questions.
6. May have changed, but last time someone asked, the official response was that no, no cards with the salvage boxes.
7. Yep, etched. Translucent with painted etching. They showed sample photos in the updates on the Kickstarter page - you should be able to see them even without being logged in as a backer. Scroll to the updates around #70-80.
8. Yeah, you essentially get the sixth one for free if selecting as a reward. If taken as add-ons, IS, Clan, and ComStar packs cost $20, $25, and $30, respectively.