The way to level 50

Dont stress it, level cap will in

Not in my experience. You have around 4days to refill your sugar, I manage that even at times where I dont play all that much. Its impossible to clear all the useless sugar quests, so often youll have a few of those completed and waiting to be grabbed when need arrises.
Once you get to the late thirties you are also starting to experience long gaps between gear that can be leveled, so mostly you only need sugar for training.

 

Yes that's one option, but when crew trainings take 2-3 days each, I prefer not to waste time on useless crew members... it already takes forever to get stuff done without that

 

Yes thats the way you should train your crew.

 

9 more months for me.
1.9 year isn't too long time for f2p game