The economic model isn't even in the game yet so I wouldn't worry about that side of the game until it comes in.

Yeah I agree about the monsters, I'm not even sure if you can catch them, if you right click it just seems to follow them rather than catch them. Thou that might just be coincidence because the times that I've done it I've had the same speed as the critter. At the moment its much easier to just manaully move after them.

There used to be ore deposits in 0.22, but I haven't seen any since the update.  I guess they took them out.

Close enough that you don't have to spend essence on them.  Far enough away that they don't interfere with each other.

Once you get the hang of it, you can keep from going into debt if you want.  Since most of the gameplay isn't there yet, whether you choose to do so is up to you.

I've had cities that produce ~40 gold.  Not sure what goes into that.  It's probably mostly population.

Most of the monsters don't actually wander very far.  Spiders spend their time around the spider webs.  Trolls spend their time around their lair (the Troll Leader sits on top of the lair).  I haven't seen enough of the bandits to figure out their behavior.  If you don't take the goodies from their respective homes, the monsters will just keep spawning and wandering around that small area.  Then you don't have to chase them very far.

  Is there any advantage (yet) to settling up near rivers?

  Thanks for the feedback, wasn't sure what was or was not a bug.

I have confirmed that roads definately cost 10 gold per turn. I have also confirmed that you can keep deficit-speding all you want and nothing ever happens: in short, money really is not useful.