[AT&T Galaxy Note 3 General] Bob Simons:
a handful of questions that I think I know some of the answers to

(1) installing any custom recovery at this point will "break" Knox?

(2) any point in trying to make a Nandroid on the stock recovery before changing anything but the de la Vega root?

(3)if there is a value in doing a backup with the stock recovery, is there a documented best practice way to do it? I saw an article in some other forum (from a Google search on Nandroid stock recovery or something like that) which partially explained how to do a fastboot command from a PC to run CWM which is on an SSD card but not actually installed. Is this the basic idea of what to do and does anyone explain the details?

(4) I don't remember where now but I found another post with different APN settings than the OP. Specifically the MMC proxy was listed as wireless.cingular.com instead of how the OP puts it. I don't think anything else was different. Does this work also?

(5) Anything else that should be done before altering the phone? IMEI backup? EFS backup? Or does a full Nandroid do all this?

(6) I think I bricked an S4 trying to restore a TWRP backup from an old phone to a new one. It was probably my stupidity but I now fear TWRP. the OP seems to favor it. Is there consensus on it, or in any case, any reason to be concerned about the latest TWRP?

(7) On another device I own, (the BN Nook HD+) there isn't any version of TWRP that runs both CM 10.2 and CM11 so both the recovery and the ROM need to be done at the same time. Is the 900T the same?

(8) is there any undetectable tethering technique for someone with a 900T on an AT&T unlimited plan? I see some mentions of various VPN apps: do they make an encrypted tunnel to another host who must be paid to allow a lot of traffic to run through their systems? I don't see a good explanation but that's what it appears to be to me. Is this the only way to do it? I've been maintaining my unlimited plan for several years now but cant use ti for much without tethering and I don't want to lose the plan if there's a useful way to keep it.

(9) Is the mere act of rooting enough to break the use of any and all OTA updates? If I stayed stock waiting for CM11 or AOKP to sort themselves out a bit more, is there any way to get updates I can't get OTA? Or this enough reason to flash some 4.4.2 ROM?

(10) not wanting to start or feed flame wars, any thoughts about the "best" daily driver? After two bad experiences with S4s a month ago, I've been on TW since I got the phone on 1/2/14. I've always put CM or AOKP the day I bought my phones but I never paid about $800 for a phone with no warranty without a lot of work or deception. Is official CM11 ready for daily use? Is the ported "international 9005 ROM which is supposed to run on the 900T enough better to be worth the bother?

(11) so if the 900T is more or less bricked but the display works so it's clear that it's unlocked/rooted/flashed is the only alternative at that point to water damage it so it'll be exchanged?

(12) Does it have a one year warranty for accidental damage available anywhere other than square trade when you don't have a T-Mo plan?

Thanks for everything including the idea of using a 900T on AT&T. I hadn't realized that my less bars in more places was because this ROM only has 4 bars to show instead of 5. If they ever fully crack the 900A, is there any reason to be sad for having bought a 900T (besides the high price and the warranty difficulties?

I apologize for putting so many questions in one place. So I'll ask one more. Should I have made a dozen separate posts with one question each? I've been reading everything here for the last several years (started with an HTC Kaiser/Tilt way back when) and have about as many questions as answers.