I will offer my thoughts on Auto-cover only as this is my first winter with the pool and am not well versed on the other subjects you mention. My PB really pushed the auto cover making sound like the best thing since sliced bread and the fact that we would not have to build a fence around pool.
I too have a FG pool and PB did the closing this past late October. He drained it very slightly, a little less than halfway up skimmer height. At first, he wasn't going to drain it at all but he could not blow out lines properly as the water height was above gismo blow out hole.....So he drained water to the point where it was below gismo about 3/4 inch.
I got to say from my limited six-Month experience......I love my auto cover! I open it up in summer to let the rain in if I want to raise water level a bit (I prefer 3/4 way up skimmer). It acts as a solar cover in summer too and maintains the heat well at night with the cover closed. I use less chemicals during summer as the pool is easily covered when not in use.
I too have a cover pump that came with pool and have one of those "elephant trunks on it" see pic. It has been in the teens here the last several weeks and hoping pool will thaw soon so I can open cover and vacuum out the worms.....Yes, that's the one drawback with a pool at ground level-the worms find their way in!
