I think it´s peak, something to distinguish low to mid high tiers from upper ones.
And the top high tiers might distinguish themselves further with an advanced Haki form.
The Impel Down zoans were probably experiments done by Vegapunk, though not explicitly stated.
Yep that´s how i see it as well, Marco underlined he is not going to Kaidou as long as the battlefield is not secured, with Zoro and Sanji it is now secured, so he can go up. We will probably get something regarding to Ace, since he, Luffy and Yamato, all have deep connection.
Considering that we only saw Awakening when two of the most powerful high tiers showed this ability. Also, OP movies always portray Awakening as a very big deal - Tesoro is Doflamingo's counterpart and his Awakening was op, let alone Bullet who managed to terraform 4 entire islands.
Yep. After all, Haki is absolutely important in the New World. I don't think there is a single Yonko "right hand man" - or call it whatever you want - who isn't very experienced in a form of Haki.
I think Chopper's Monster Point might truly be the "real" Zoan Awakening, only with a timelimit. It's also interesting that Luffy noted that he has never seen a zoan user like that in appearance as well when he fought the ID zoans.
Also, Oda basically retells the Momotaro mythology here: Momo (Momotaro), Luffy (Monkey), Yamato (Dog), Marco (Pheasant) and Kaido (Oni). We have yet to see how Oda amplies this mythology to the final act of Wano but I'm sure Marco is going to fight Kaido too.