Save your breath dude. You yourself said that it's individual preference. And he mention it perfectly loud and clear that he PREFER something solid and heavy..!!
Obviously our beloved SGSII that is really slim, almost weightless with great performance was NOT ON his preference of choice.
That's why i'm saving us all by suggesting.., no wait.., INSISTING that he should go and buy HTC Sensation which is surely big, heavy and strong rather than hearing his complaint and whinning in this thread :-P

~~ lol ~~

I'll try to answer most of your question though i still at stock rom :-P

1) - Ppl always advice go for Litening if you want to try custom rom because flashing Litening is the most simplest way for you in order to get a) root b) superuser c) busybox d) CWM e) nice custom rom with one go. This rom wont wipe anything so you wont lost any of your precious data.

2) - CM7 is basically a rom that are void of any Samsung things. It's more as an AOSP rom plus additional tweaks.

3) - Yes, for Litening rom the bigger number the latest it is though it doesn't mean the more stable it is :-P

root using CF-Root will install CWM on your phone..so no need dload from market..then you backup .other step okay..but another thing if you want to add, dload Titanium Backup, backup all your apps first if just incase you in bootloop or need to wipe...and also dload sms backup to backup all your sms and call log if you need that..also...sync your contact with your gmail..

Dude, you've not even rooted and thinking on flashing litening rom. You're damn good. Don't know how to walk and want to run. 

Just go with CF-root. The easiest way to get rooted.

Why don't you just follow my simple tutorial which I have pointed out and explain in detail . Dont confuse yourself further

Litening if you have took time to read up his rom features require you to flash it using ODIN not through recovery mode

I repeat again:

If you want root only : Use odin and flash supercurio3 or use Superoneclick

If you want root and recovery installed only and do not want any changes to rom: Use odin flash Chainfire root4

If you want root/recovery/and wish to try a custom rom that will not wipe your data : Flash Litening 5

The article you have pointed out is a GENERAL consept of flashing and for your info NOT all roms are compatible to be used with Rom Manager. If you read page 1, I have never say or encourage users to use Rom Manager. Certain roms can work well with it. But why bother using something that is not fully compatible ? Just use trusted 100% releiable clockword mod recovery from Chainfire ( can say is the best) or from CWM generated from other kernels flash eg Nionphetamine. Speedmod

If the intention is just to flash litening, I think goes straight to Odin and flash. Litening. Does not requires you to pre root. Its package will root and install cwm for you when flashing litening itself.

~~ ohh man ~~
Some guy really push their luck too far. Why dont you read page 1 carefully first, dude. :-P