Regarding (1), yes, it must match all. Because of this, patents usually enumerate variants as separate claims. E.g., the 1st claim will be something very broa

Regarding (1), yes, it must match all. Because of this, patents usually enumerate variants as separate claims. E.g., the 1st claim will be something very broad. The 2nd claim will be, "claim 1, with feature X" [1]. The 3rd claim, "claim 1, with feature Y". The 4th claim, "claim 2, with feature X". etc. This (a) allows the inventor to claim each aspect of their invention separately; (b) since claims are invalidated independently, allows the inventor to still claim the very specific combination of all parts of their invention, if the broader claims are invalidated; and (c) allows the inventor to claim refinements of the invention which might otherwise be considered novel and therefore patentable by someone else. This patent is odd in that it doesn't follow that pattern. Just one solitary claim. (For reference, a random unrelated patent I happen to be reading now uses 26 claims to basically say "we invented a slightly different way to lay out RAID-6 parity blocks".) [1] The specific verbiage used is usually something like "the system/method of claim N, further comprising [additional mechanism]", or "the system/method of claim N, wherein [specific design choice]".