Yes
No
No, but a slide to cover mechanic would be nice.
Crouching just doesn't make sense with the more realistic mechanics they're going for. No one would be doing duck walks through the city--your thighs would burn out fast. Moving in cover and dashing from cover to cover is how "crouching" would work in a more realistic environment.
The lack of squatting, bunny-hopping, and 1-hit melees while I'm shooting you in the face are some of the biggest attractions of this game for me.
The cover mechanic itself isn't that bad but sometimes it's like you get stuck to a piece of cover, I can see why it's less clunky on console but on PC you expect it to be a little more responsive. I like the idea of a crouch, hate the idea of jumping/crouching while running at full speed during a gun fight. There has to be a middle ground, like crouching behind cover or making cover less sticky.
I could see a crouch style where you put one knee on the ground and have that shin flat to the ground, keeping you from moving, but you have an increase in weapon stability. The only movements involving crouching could be the motion to get into the crouch position, and getting out of the crouch position in whichever manner you might try to do, such as pushing off with the raised leg to get to cover or just standing up.