Yes but p2p online is much higher risk.
yes, 10 days hold with coinbase really sucks. But at least you can withdraw back to bank account after 1-2 days in my case, but only with the high transfer fees of 1.5%.
Not necessarily. Just look through the posts on the currency exchange board, you'll find plenty of trusted people there. I'd be more careful using LBC or Paxful though, since a lot of people buy/sell their accounts.