Yes, IIRC in the GameInformer podcast. It could still make it in by the time the game finishes, but it's not something I'd expect.
I had not heard that. That is pretty awful for pure spellcasters. The in game spells in past games were never very good, always too weak or cost way too much to cast. This just further shows the game is being dumbed down.
Don't care for the removal of attribs, or really anything. I am of the mind they should not be taking things out but adding things in. Dragons could be okay, it depends how much of a gimmick they are.