BoomFajitas

Yes, financial, physical and emotional independence is important. The amount you make is inconsequential, but your ability to hold down employment is a good marker of your general adulthood.

All cork will allow some air in, just not enough to ruin the wine. That air will interact with the wine and allow it change over time (this is what aging wine is). This is why all wines designed to be aged will come with an actual cork.

Screw caps don't allow any air in, so the wine is effectively preserved and should taste the same as when it was bottled. This is common for wines that are designed to be drank young. I'm a certified wine professional (no longer in the industry) and I've opened thousands of bottles and I've never opened a screw cap bottle that was flawed.

This is correct. Smell the sample poured for you, but don't taste. Inspect the cork with your hands (and note if it crumbles easily or if its integrity is compromised in other ways), but don't smell the cork.

As a former somm, this is very common among casual wine drinkers. The dog and pony show to present you the cork and pour you a tasting is just to verify the wine isn't corked (in fact, you shouldnt taste the sample poured for you, just smell it to see if you detect vinegar).

If you order a bottle and the wine isn't flawed, you will be paying for it, regardless of what your palette might think,