I inquired of my banker just today to refinance numerous properties.

Rankings are based on a combination of those three categories in 483 counties around the United States with sufficient data to analyze.I don't think they are taking account the most important factors, which are are exposure to most effected industries.

All of your other questions rely heavily on the use category and specific tenant.

Jay has pointed out numerous times over the years that taking advantage of the GR was not trivial due to the difficulty of getting financing. 

If you are doing 1-4 family homes, you probably don't need LLC's unless you have many of them or for some reason they have a really high value.  1-4 families are still in the "residential real estate" category so you can take advantage of that by keeping them in your personal name.Hope this helps.

I have picked up new skills including framing, painting, some plumbing, some electric, and have done numerous kitchen and bathroom renovations.

But as far as how to correctly document and record that work to make sure it falls into the correct categories, that is something you'd probably want to ask your CPA about.  

There are numerous steps we can take to combat this lunacy.

I have read numerous books they have published along with many other sources of self-education on real estate and financial Independence.

I invest in notes and their used to be a guru who passed around JV agreements that were so bad they were breaking numerous federal laws.