1. Yes, a lot of the game has that half empty feel. Agree about the extremely annoying nature of the overland travel. You should stick to the roads and don't explore. The only exploration to be done is to get to these annoying as hell "dwarf mazes" where you can get some extra treasure and XP.
The Dwarf mazes were in Treasures, which was a much better game.
I know Rangers can use wands, which kind of surprised me. Can all classes?
Varies from game to game.
Generally all classes except Clerics can use Wands. I always give Necklases of Missiles (usable by any class) and Wands of Fireball and Ice Storm to my most dexterous characters first, to use for enemy spell disruption/prevention.
Yeah, I was annoyed that I was cheated out of a nice battle there...