Only if it's the 5x5 kallax. 2x4 or 2x2 are too common.

Ours was 1959 and had a weep screed (bay area), but not all homes do. There should be a clear enough delineation between the stucco and the foundation, so that's a good place to start your slope away from the house (a couple of inches below the stucco at least.

This looks like stucco. You should (but may not) have a weep screed at the bottom which should have holes exposed to open air. Whe we bought our house part of the screed on one side of the house was completely buried under dirt.

You likely have some dirt removal in your future. If the ground is saturated with water it's an easier time to dig, though.

True, but older homes often don't have ground wires either. Ours built in the late 50's didn't have grounds.

When you use any kind of specialty switch, like (obviously not relevant here) a motion sensor, timer, etc. a neutral is best. There are motion sensors that pull a bit of current through the circuit itself, but they are terrible at best and often don't work with LED lighting, which is also code now.

I suspect the code mentioned is meant to prevent shoddy sparkies from lazily grabbing neutrals from nearby circuits, which can result in shared neutrals (ask me how I know this).

I can't honestly think of a reason why you'd use anything other than a dumb toggle switch for an under-sink cutoff for a DW/Disposal, but it's probably easier and safer to just say "all switch locations need a neutral" than to specify "except under kitchen cabinets where the switch is only used for an appliance cutoff".