1. They don't have scouts indeed but they have assassins, like Abysia (in dom1 at least), that could scout too.
2. Ancient Temple was a sacred site in Dom I, but it gave one astral pearl (thats confusing).
(snip - thanks for those great informations)
7. In dom1 Bane Blades do infect the victim with a (non contagious) desease. Its not like a guaranteed kill on big units, esp. if the affliction can be removed (Pangaea, Chalice, immortal, Arco priestess etc).
I've found about 100 new sites in dom2, see my xls list. New sites are in red (dont know the effect yet) :
http://www.freewebs.com/sunraybe/sites.xls
Cheers