[wkupike2000]

1) general skin settings>skin service helper advanced settings>skin helper settings (music/pvr artwork e.c.t) >settings>api keys

2) I've found personally to try and use your libary as much as possible. I only use one video addon myself and have incorporated it into my libary along with my local drives. Try and keep your spotlight and Widgets mostly pointing to your libary/playlists and try and have as little as possible going to addons.
Even using 30 items per Widget i manage to get everything to load before the splash screen has finished.
3) the main view can be found in homesceeen layout>widgets>layout for widgets. I belive you also need it set up to set default action to show information to get it to show info like next episode, more seasons e.c.t (should be all done by default if you set it up correctly)
If there is a view you like somewhere else you can press c to bring up the context menu were you can select a view you prefer (some dont work in certain conditions, like you can't use biggie view when viewing media sources) it will just default to list. But some can be used like poster wall e.c.t.
Once you have found the ones you like then click the lock directly under where you selected the view to lock it until you wish to change it.

Thank you so much for the help! Some follow up:
1. I've set the OMDB patreon API(and Fanart and TMDB too) but still not seeing all the ratings (and their icons). I've enabled and disabled the "Prefer IMDB/RT/TMDB Ratings over Percentage" option in settings but neither one changes where I can see all the various ratings. 
2. I'm using a local NAS with PKC(PlexKodiConnect) ass my only video add-on. What do I need to do to make that "Local" as you mentioned? 
3. Hmm, yeah that's just for the homescreen. I want the Homescreen poster so no need to change that. I thought there would be a way to set the global view once inside each area (i.e. TV Shows, inside a Season, etc.)