Moireth, if you can swing another refresh the Cloak of Shadows power covers nightvision plus giving your stealth a good bonus, then you could use your beast-trappings part of Echoes of the Beast to add another trapping to a skill or give you a +1 to something else you find useful for your concept. 

To the first question; I treat those as navel gazing maneuvers for Evocation. Maybe Lore to use the surroundings, Conviction to draw more from your personal well of power, Discipline to focus on the effect you are about to do, ect.     
To the second question; I'd say that you can boost your Conviction rating with tags to put more oomph into your effect. That effect you mentioned could be a 7 shift effect with only one stress. Maybe even a rote that the character needs prep time to get right. The control roll wouldn't be affected unless you have more fate points or tags waiting.
To the third question; I have yet to pick up the Paranet Papers, though it's on my list, so I don't know the specifics you are mentioning. That said, you can split casting over multiple exchanges when doing Thaumaturgy. It's dangerous, but you can and may need to with even moderately complex rituals. 
Not so for Evocation outside of the tags mentioned  earlier.

Armed Arts has a prerequisite that you don't have. (Martial Artist: Use Fists for Assessments and Declarations related to fighting styles or martial culture.)

PirateJack beat me to the post, but yeah different pyramids.
My comments are under the assumption that you can not use more than one Focus Item at a time. If you want your casting to have +Power and +Control from foci it needs to be one item. (Or specific group of items, pair of gloves ect.)
I am quite biased on the topic, if my pseudonym isn't an indicator already, I love crafters. It's the human way to succeed. I will agree that frequency bonuses need to go entirely, but I would call Foci Strength and Enchanting Strength fairly balanced on their own. Has anyone tried just removing Frequency? 

What all in involved in world building/character creation? The only experience I have is running a few one shot campaigns for dungeons and dragons. Are there set templates for everything or is it more abstract and not overly number crunchy?

There are templates, but they are not particularly important. They represent the minimum starting powers all of a certain type of Dresdenverse "class" needs. All Wizards have The Sight+Soulgaze, Evocation, Thaumaturgy and Wizard's Constitution. Otherwise they don't make it into the White Council and few other people would take them seriously if they called themselves a Wizard. Elaine uses the Wizard template even though she is not a member of the Council, ect.
The game is definitely more cooperative, both between the GM and players and in the party.
Aspects are a very weird mechanic until you get comfortable. Don't worry, they are your best friend once you get the hang of it. They do not all need to be awesomely creative, just descriptive.
The setting's version of the 'assist other' action is 'passing tags'. If your players are getting frustrated by failures early on this is the way to go to get past plot obstacles, it is very useful. 
*edited for typos   

Here's where the debate is:

If you are using evocation's speed AND METHODS, then shouldn't you use evocation foci/specializations?

If you are using Thaum specializations and foci, then shouldn't your attack spell be strictly like Thaumaturgy IE: a thaum attack spell only has accuracy.  It has no weapon rating.  Each shift put into a curse adds to the accuracy to resist - it does not add a weapon rating.

I wouldn't allow both.

This is how I do it and I know this is different than how some other people do it:

Your sponsored magic becomes a new element in evocation.  So, if you can do biomancy(like summer magic) at the speed and methods of evocation, you can take evocation foci: defensive Summer control/power; offensive Summer defense/control.

From that point it works exactly like evocation: weapon ratings, block, attack - exactly like evocation.  With the exception, that you could justify skill replacement spells with evothaum and, maybe, wards.

***

If  you are going to allow Thaumaturgy foci for you evothaum, then it gets weird.  Control stays control, but what about complexity foci?  do they become a stand-in for Power foci?

If you are going to allow Thaumaturgy foci for evothaum, I would have spells work exactly like thaumaturgy: no weapon ratings; Block are done as wards and can only be set up on thresholds or doorways/intersections; veils are immobile.

Otherwise, anyone with sponsored magic will throw all their foci into thaumaturgy and will be able to get twice the mileage out of those foci because they'll double as evocation foci.  Once you start piling on refinements, things will break down quickly.

I would't much argue with you if I was playing your game and you ruled that way. The discussion made me go over the R.A.W. again and I have changed my mind, on foci at least. (I re-read Madge's ring after way too long)
 I still think evo-thaum should use weapon ratings and such, you are supposed to be getting the best of both worlds, you're paying for it and giving up access to the high shift value effects that you can only pull off with regular thaumaturgy's access to outside power sources and time.   
Complexity does already cover for power when needed though.
Most of this only applies to stuff from these boards that I don't do without in my games; the self-sponsored, superior:Blah stuff. That is where you don't get a new and otherwise unavailable element/theme.

I think you could stack several Maneuvers into a single Evo-Thaum casting. It would be ludicrously expensive to try on any but the weakest enemies and/or more than two aspects, since you would have to pull all of the power for it at once. Part of the benefit of a Sponsor is that they can handle some of the more complex elements of the spell for you. Even self-sponsored stuff seems to be more complex, at least thematically.