2. I like that idea. I also kind of like the idea of just not using comments - when I used disqus years ago it was mostly spam - but I think I want to try again and see if it's worth it.
3. Also a good point, but that only accounts for those people who are aware of the tracking as a point of concern. Given that the blog will be technical with a personal bent and vice-versa, one or two of my ten readers may not be aware of tracking as a thing :)
On this front, though, I'm probably just going to start with log analytic tools. It's really the only way to get a fully accurate picture across visitors (server side logging can't be blocked, but GA and even self-hosted data gathering can), and I don't really care too much about the additional info that analytics can provide.