Recovery email only restores access to the account, so you can get future emails. But all data is lost, emails sent in the past (saved emails) are not recovered.

https://proton.me/support/set-account-recovery-methods

Probably "know your customer" selfie. Might be a picture of their ID, a picture of themselves, or a picture with both them and ID.

Possibly Mint mobile? They don't sell service in 1 month increments, only 3-12. So harder to switch to another carrier if you need to.