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Daniel
Some good questions there and well done on taking the plunge in astronomy. Yes you are right the smaller dobs are definitely the way to go for visual work and are the best bet for "impressing" the kids as they can easily operated by a child but have plenty of oomph to keep you happy.
The Bintel dobs are rebranded GSO dobs. The main difference (as I understand it) is that Andrews simply ship the scope as it arrives to them. Certainly when I purchased my 12" it arrived in a box that showed no evidence of being opened after leaving the factory in Taiwan. Bintel I believe do check each scope and do a quick collimation on the OTA before sending them out. I am happy to be corrected on this last point if that has changed.
Collimation is often a scary subject for beginners and yes an f4.9 is going to be a little less forgiving than an f6 but not by much. My advice to beginners is have a go at collimating your scope as best you can but don't obsess about it.This hobby is for a lifetime, there is plenty of time to learn how to collimate to perfection if that is what "floats your boat".
Malcolm
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