dock folders - how to view list/grid/fan on hover & open in finder with 1-click
I don't know of any way to view the contents of a folder when hovering the mouse over it.

To open a folder without having to click then click "Open in Finder", you can Option-Command click on the folder and it will open the folder in Finder. (Another tidbit: Command click on the folder and it will open its enclosing folder in Finder)