Ok for one thing I'm not that old damn it, getting there but not there yet.
Answer to question one, yes there is but not going to talk about it on the internet and frankly its a fairly in depth answer. Politics is always involved in one way or another when it comes to who gets "the call", unless its just in that teams AO. And honestly if its that high profile that someone is picked over someone else its probably going to be a T1 unit anyway. Its not like the movies where a team is just chilling out stateside and then get "the call" to go take down a terrorist cell in Africa. At least not on the white SOF side.
Personally I think the SEALs and PJ's are the only ones that really have a niche. The SEALs are the primary water guys and the PJ's are the only ones who's primary role is personnel recovery. Other than that we all have the same core capabilities its just we all have our areas that we excel or specialize in.
Answer to question two, it all depends on your command but the majority do the in house language school, which seems to put out a pretty good product.
Answer to question three, the SEALs are the SOCOM maritime component. Can we train for that mission? Yes. Do we? No.
As far as can an MSOT operate in an austere environment absolutely. MSOT's have been tasked with establishing FOB's and VSO sites in the middle of Indian country where there hasn't been any coalition presence in years if ever with the only logistical support being air drops, if that. They've been told hey we know you were planing to do x but we need your team to go to location y and set up shop, and by the way you have four days to be in position.
And finally MSOT's are definitely in the mix, quite a bit to considering we only have three Battalions.