Hi Spagooli (Love the name)!
I am very happy to hear that you have been enjoying GRIMOIRE :) .
For the offering of a spell, you can think of them as spell components in DnD, but they also include strange behaviours or rituals you might have to do. It is really there to add some flavour to the spells and consider what might be necessary for balance if you were to port the spell to another system that has such requirements on magic.
Unfortunately your second point has stumbled on an old rule left over from an early version of the game. I had thought I found them all! You can safely ignore the removal of face cards due to this rule and it will not impact the game.
I hope this clears things up for you and thank you so much for reaching out! If you have any more questions, suggestions, or suggestions, I am always eager to hear them :) .