To what extent does open gaming continue to exist after this change?
Open games will still be there -- the only change is the auto games being taken away from it. Which will likely make it stronger, since most of the autogames are just a distraction.
How do the 30 templates interact with the broader settings such as MD/RT or 1v1/FFA/Team?
All templates are playable MD and RT. Each template will be either a 1v1, FFA, or Team, as defined by the person who proposed the template.
Are there any mechanisms in place to ensure template variety before (or in spite of) the popular community vote?
The 30 templates are entirely up to the community + votes. No variety enforced for those 30. There may be a few additional ones that are there to control the newbie experience, but they'll be in addition to the 30 and once you get past the newbie phase you can just uncheck them and never look at them again.
Will your ratings on each template be show?
Yep! See Timinator's screenshot.
Is there an option to have a boot time of 3 days?
Right now all MD templates are 25 hour boots. The games are supposed to be quick, after all. The boot time of all RT games will be up to the template.
as I don't feel like grinding out games that will be 50% luck to get to the good templates.
It's true the first template is the "newbie template", and you have to win that one twice to unlock the next template. If it's really luck, as you say, then it should only take you 4 games on average to get past it. Hardly a grind :) Put yourself in the mindset of a brand new player who's experiencing their first WarLight game.
Edited 8/18/2017 07:23:28