2) Asserting knowledge based on private servers, which are known to have many differences, especially those with regards to levelling speed, is retarded.
I played last year on a private server and it was extremely well scripted. Less than a dozen bugged quests out of thousands, and only 1 of them you couldn't validate. All dungeons and raids scripted, based on previous works and original vanilla videos (all vanilla raid add-ons working). No game breaking bugs in gear and talents. At this point, I wonder if it had less bugs than official vanilla wow.
Blizzlike server, so exact same levelling speed.
As for the money debate, it's really dependent of your knowledge of the game. All noobs will struggle. Particularly on a new server where there is no one to buy your stuff.
On this 10 year old server, it was pretty easy to make money. Copper at 1G like others said. I had 1000G at lvl 30 and 3000 at lvl 60.
On a new server, I'm not sure what's the best strategy. Obviously, hitting 60 as fast as possible is one, since you can then grind considerably more at max level. My guess is that after 2 weeks, there will be some lvl 60 on the server, so you take gathering skills (Mining and Herbs), store that on other characters and sell at lvl 40 to buy mount. If you're playing casually, there should be lots of higher players to buy. Fishing is also one of the best options.