[The High Roller]

1. VPN without any logs, should be off shore. Get hosting from ecatel. There are a few others that don't give a shit about hosting botnets but rather keep that to myself .
2. Not into the crypter scene as I haven't touched a botnet for a while now. Though get something without dependencies. Ignore the people who say it means nothing. From what I've seen .net doesn't come with all versions of windows, and if it does not everything is supported. To stay undetected by a majority of AV companies update your files constantly (which means crypting and using what ever update feature your panel has, some don't and I don't feel like going into that).
3. Depends on what you're looking for. If you're a beginner try and http bot, irc is out dated and not the best to secure. I'd try a cracked andromeda or if you want something that is a no brainer to setup go for dirt jumper. Just upload the files and run the setup, and you're done. It lacks features except for DDoS which are decent. Though you won't get anything good really unless you pay for it and that depends on what you want. Though for banking and A few other activities get citadel, it isn't cheap but you can purchase modules that will automatically crypt and update your files through a certain period of time.
4. None. Though coding your own bot may be better, for example advertisement and email spamming bots are not so commercial because most people make it themselves. If you have a good bit of money buy a reputable commercial bot without dependencies. (This means don't go to HF and buy barracuda which sends information in raw text do the panel).