First off, welcome.
Secondly, there are those here who own Cal Look and German Look cars ... so only some of us will kill you.
... especially the ones who have those unsuitable BBS wheels.
Okay, seriously, if you are interested in Super Beetles (1302s and 1303s), you should check out
Super Beetles Only!. It is my co-favorite site with this one.
You have a definitive idea of what you like and don't like. That's good. Have a look around in the galleries. Get a taste of the possibilities. You don't want to head in one direction only to discover you like something else better a little later.
Whatever your basis car is going to be, get one which is as rustfree as possible. Some things are easy to replace; others are a royal pain or expense. If you choose a Super (like me), pay extra attention to the strut towers and make sure it did not get into a major frontal in its previous life. Anything is fixable but what makes a Super worth owning is its struts.
I am going to let the technical questions slide because I actually ask more technical questions than I answer.
The Super Beetle did go through a change in its stock struts mid-1973. For the most part, the differences are marginal. One (I forget which) has the advantage of greater lowering if one desires. There is a way to swap if that is something you do crave and you have the wrong year car. SBO! will have those answers; just do a search.
There is no concensus best year. All VWs -- not just Supers and not just Beetles -- have their advantages and disadvantages. German Look is all about enhancing the advantages and neutralizing the disadvantages.
There are lots of opinions on brakes and suspension, and they are all right here. You will have lots of choices. Some are expensive. Some are intricate. They don't have to be. It depends on what you want within your budget.
Your final question was about the strut suspension. Only Super Beetles and the hard-to-find 411s and 412s had them. (Well, the 914 did, too, but they were considered strictly Porsche here in the states and a joint venture elsewhere.) Their incorporation was not a function of year. Swing axle versus IRS was a function of year. IRS started in 1969 on the Beetles (1968 if auto-stick equipped) built in Germany. Mexican Beetles were swing axle to the very end.
It wasn't that the strut suspension was so bad -- it was VW never envisioned making the Super Beetle a performance car. There are manufacturers like TopLine and Kerscher which have offerings in improving the front. This is no different than Eibach making coilovers to improve the modern Golf.
You will find many references to Porsche (a.k.a. "the P car" or "the P word") because some Porsche parts are easily or directly adaptable to the VW. Not only did Porsche and VW have similar roots, they have had joint ventures throughout their history. And Porsche parts are already performance parts.
I've been here for over three years and I continue to be amazed how many new ideas keep cropping up. And at my age, not too many things amaze me anymore.
Good luck.