Off the top of my head, Chapter 80 is a good example of the "idealized state." (I do think some things are often lost in translation; many of the freely available translations on the internet tend to read into the Laozi what they "think" it means.) There are a bunch of other references too though. It's also worth remembering that these are composite texts - there was no "single" author so if things occasionally seem self-contradictory, that's pretty natural.
That's absolutely true. From the fact that there were so many equally ancient text commenting and interpreting the the original text (later also become canonical sources), it could be contradicting itself too. My views were basically formed via my background and what commonly understood in my upbringing.
Yes, for sure. It's also the case that our understanding of ancient texts has changed a lot over the past 20-30 years as more archaeological finds have been discovered (e.g. Mawangdui). I once had a Professor who tried to discourage me from focusing so much on ancient literature because he joked that all my research would be out of date in 20 years :D
