So medieval was chosen based on your personal preferences and love to WoW and LotR, I see… 
And why have you decided to add all that stuff in? Those I’d like to see “implemented”, though I’m not hopeful anything here will. 
From another topic I thought of a new approach for idea #1. The whole computer programmer fiasco theme would be dropped and the core of the idea (teaching more about computer history) could be fit in this medieval theme.
Take big electronic machines and paper computing early on, for instance. Those could be replaced by steam computers and instead of using paper use some well ornamented carved stones (which is not too far from disks, by the way). Call that level / resource Charles Babbage. And the first level talking about history could bring actual stuff from that era…
And I’ll keep on dreaming… 
Another thing about point (2):
The whole current item system is basically non-sensical since there is no way to accumulate gems other than buying them. So the gems are basically useless on the “free to play” track, as it is right now. If that’s by design, I think this is another point to drop it.
However, if this was better balanced and gems started making some sense, then having new functions attached to items could be cool. Maybe. I guess my point here is it has to be part of the gameplay, not just work as an achievement.