1) It shouldn't affect and probably didn't.
2) New pkgsrc branch wasn't officially announced, however it's available on ftp to download, so it can take some time. If you are really not in hurry you can go with building packages from pkgsrc tree. At least i would go that way
.
3)
fbpanel and
pypanel are available, but in
wip.
http://pkgsrc.se/ - very good package browser.
From my experience i cannot recommend anything "light" for desktop. Some time ago I used fluxbox, but now I stick with Gnome. It's much more comfortable, at least for me
.
Best Regards,
Tom