Wow - that took quite a bit of time!
For the "first played/DM'd D&D" options I don't think they will get what they want from my responses. I started before the internet, so none of those options were selected. But if they asked "how would I get someone into D&D now" it would be very different. For example: watching Critical Role with my daughters.
It's interesting that one of the questions is "Have you ever played Dungeons & Dragons tabletop RPG?" -- I assume this survey is meant for a much wider audience, then.
Yikes, it's a long one!
I had a similar feeling. There is a reason for making surveys like that, but I can't remember the precise explanation.So many similar questions. At times I felt like I was being tested to see if I really meant what I said earlier!
It's a different environment. Back then there were tons of news and rumours about the upcoming game to collate. In the run-up to 4E, 5E, Pathfinder 2, I did the same, and I'm sure I will for 6E if/when it ever happens. But in the middle of an edition's cycle, especially one with far fewer releases, there's just less news to talk about. At least in terms of official 5E product releases. Even so, I've scooped plenty of them ahead of time over the last few years. As for fastest - well, I updated it daily then, much like I do now, except these days we have additional columnists adding info about a wider range of games too.
I don't use ENWorld for news, way too slow and behind the curve. I use Twitter and Reddit for news, ENWorld is for discussion.
For me, the trickiest questions were the "which editions did you play" style ones. I started in 1994 started DMing later that uear, and it wasn't until 1997 or 98 that I realized there was a definite difference between D&D, AD&D, and AD&D 2nd Edition.
So did I play Basic? Not by name. Did I play 1e? Not by name. But I used products from both those lines liberally in the 2e games I was running and playing in.