How to define my own block regions for original, custom front page layout?
If you just need it on your front page, doing it in page template is wrong.
You can do in in Panel - create new panel for logged and not logged users; use there blocks; and views' display 'panel pane' for using views which need argument from context.
Yes you can
It can, but sending view argument this way is really painful. I recommend use panels panes.
You set it in panel.