While I think that CB is a fun part of hobby radio, I also believe it is limited in its utility. I was a long time CBer before I was a licensed ham. In my experience, short range comms with CB is extremely short range, especially with the power output restrictions. Conversely, long range comms can be extremely long range but there is nothing in between! You can usually talk to someone 0 to 5 miles away (depending on terrain) or someone else 300 miles away and further, but no one between 5 and 300 miles will hear you. This sounds strange but it is the nature of that area of spectrum (and can be explained but I wont go into that here). But at the moment the long range capability is going to happen only on rare occasions because of the current state of the sunspot cycle (not gonna get into that either). With that in mind I would say CB is NOT very versatile. However, it does have some uses. On the highway truckers might be sources of road/traffic related information, especially in rural areas where ham radio VHF/UHF repeaters might be hard to come by. CB can also be used to talk to other CBers in your town for fun or information about local events.
To answer your specific points by number:
1) Yes. As I mentioned above, CB may be useful for traffic information, but ham radio VHF/UHF comms has better range for local comms via repeaters and is generally FAR better than CB for this or ANY information. The only exception might be rural areas where there may not be any repeaters around. But then again there may not be any CBers either.
2) A weather feature is always cool. Having a CB or any radio with a NOAA receiver built in is worth it just for that.
3) Its better than nothing for SHTF. But even if all the VHF/UHF ham repeaters were downed by a SHTF situation, VHF/UHF have far better local comms capability directly.
4) YES. Power is always useful to your radio no matter what kind it is.
5) A hand held CB is going to limit you even more. You typically will not be heard beyond 1.5 miles and forget about the 300 mile and up stuff I talked about.
And no, I dont have a CB in my vehicle because I have ham radio in my vehicle.
But, if you are not interested in ham stuff I think that you should get the CB and use it. It can be a fun part of hobby radio.
But there are also other options beside CB and ham radio:
There is FRS (Family radio Service) which is like a VHF version of CB and you dont need a license. But its super low power so range is limited.
There is MURS that I dont know much about but I think it is also unlicensed.
There is GMRS which is pretty useful. You need a license but you just buy it.
But dont think that ham radio is over your head. Anyone can do it. There are 8 yo kids with Technician class licenses.
/John