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SEO for large websites is different than SEO for small or mid-sized websites. Zappos.com has over 6 million pages indexed by Google. Having 200 footer links is very helpful for the search engines in this situation.

Go back to the days of, "every page in 3 clicks". It's still a sound policy as it makes it easier for the search engines to not only find pages, but the pages can still have enough Page Rank to be viable and not supplemental.

I picked several unusual shoes (well, at least unusual to me). For each shoe I was able to get to it's specific product page in 3 or 4 clicks. Even though some shoe brands or styles have paginated listings going 30+ deep - Zappos.com has found a way to provide a much quicker path to the product pages.

Rottentomatoes.com also has a slick footer navigation that gets to any movie within 3 clicks.

You really should leave the extension alone for this exact reason - when something gets borked - you will have issues. Making friendly URL's, but like John said, you don't need to alter the extension.

Are you looking at broad match or exact match for the search volume? That is the most common error regarding traffic assumptions.

Hiding links in content using CSS used to be a good way to do just what you want - gain a free in bound link from a scraper. Nowadays, most scrapers will also strip out links so the value is not there (it can still happen).

There are services such as CopyScape that will automate the work of catching plagiarizers. From what you describe, that seems like the best solution. Without an automatic solution you will need to send off the DMCA requests by hand.

Another option would be to block the scrapers at the IP level. This takes some time and skill, but there are turn-key solutions available.

None (or very little). If they did SEO research or reverse engineering they would have discovered the issues with sub-domains, affiliate links and content farms - to name just a few - before they ever became an issue. Sometimes I think Google (and others) are reacting to the markets rather than being proactive in their products.

A few years ago the boost for an exact match domain was significant. This positive signal has been devalued since then, but it is still a signal and for good reason. A quality domain can indicate a significant investment - not unlike thousands of pages of quality content. One signal of many.

A lot will depend on the competitiveness of the industry. Cellphone.com is a great domain, but it's in a competitive environment and the signal of the domain does not outweight all the many other strong quality indicators. I have seen many examples of where the domain name that is not an exact match, but still contains the keywords (such as your example) is not an indicator of quality. It's not necessarily lacking in quality either, but a signal boost it is not.

SEO for large websites is different than SEO for small or mid-sized websites. Zappos.com has over 6 million pages indexed by Google. Having 200 footer links is very helpful for the search engines in this situation.

Go back to the days of, "every page in 3 clicks". It's still a sound policy as it makes it easier for the search engines to not only find pages, but the pages can still have enough Page Rank to be viable and not supplemental.

I picked several unusual shoes (well, at least unusual to me). For each shoe I was able to get to it's specific product page in 3 or 4 clicks. Even though some shoe brands or styles have paginated listings going 30+ deep - Zappos.com has found a way to provide a much quicker path to the product pages.

Rottentomatoes.com also has a slick footer navigation that gets to any movie within 3 clicks.

None (or very little). If they did SEO research or reverse engineering they would have discovered the issues with sub-domains, affiliate links and content farms - to name just a few - before they ever became an issue. Sometimes I think Google (and others) are reacting to the markets rather than being proactive in their products.