One 1. I suspect there is now nothing between a Moderator and a regular user. You can still as a regular user mark a post with "Propose as Answer" which a Moderator can then upgrade to Answer.
2. It's true it's more difficult to find but not that difficult. Go to any new forum and on the right there is the top ten poster in the previous 30 days. Click on More at the end of that page. The enter your name in the search box on the right hand side near the top of the page and you get a line giving your replies; points and answers.
3. There are clear rules for this. There was a recent thread here which included those rules but I can't remember wither waht they are or where they are listed. But it was a thread that was live in the last couple of days (probably the one about points missing).
Hope this helps a bit in the meantime.
