Ade-oh
Well-known
'Expose for the shadows -- develop for the highlights' has been a well known principle since the 19th century; the Zone System is merely a highly formalized, and some would say overcomplicated, restatement of this.
Yes, exactly right. Once you have a basic understanding of the relationship between aperture, shutter speed, film sensitivity and depth of field - together with a basic understanding of how developers work - you're in like Flint. You can be taught this in a couple of hours: unfortunately, it's the 'stupid and lazy' creative aspects which are important in photography.