Personally I think your best bet right now is to focus on North/South, you can work on the others as time progresses. I do actually go WTG/XTG/ATG on my cheeks. I do N-S, then from ear to mouth/nose, then S-N. I do two XTG passes on my neck as the hair mainly grows horizontally, then an ATG scything cut to get the tough patches. When I started shaving I always cleaned up with my DE. Sometimes I still pull out the DE when I am in a hurry.
As far as the scythe motion is concerned, that is where I would say wait for a little while before attempting.
Get really, really used of your blade.
I had a friend (that i got into straight razor shaving try the scythe after he saw me do it, and he sliced himself nicely (or wickedly some would say... left a bit of a scar). Anyway, what you're doing so far is great, and you have some great questions.
To describe the scythe cut, it's like the scythe going through grain, not a straight cut, but sweeping from the heel to the toe of the edge, it really takes getting to know your blade very well. I didn't use that stroke until probably 3 months in, but now it feels like second nature to use it on my neck to get those errant hairs.
Stropping is a personal thing, I do 20 linen/ 30 leather. Sometimes I just do 30 leather, depends on how I feel and if the blade feels good. My initial strop after honing is more like 50 linen/ 100 leather. Sometimes 30 CrOx on linen/ 60 linen/ 120 leather!
YMMV
Great to see these posts, keep it up!