Good questions. I would be interested in the answers to the latter questions. With regard to the former, I just got the download version, but I have no idea if I'm "missing" anything and there seem to be tutorials and enough stuff to help.  There is also a Extra Content CD that you download when you buy the software.  That seemed to have quite a bit as well.

Along the same lines, any particular expansions that are "must haves" for Vue 6 Esprit?