1) If my MD is idle for a time (as specified in webadmin/orbiters) my AV peripherals (plasma TV, receiver, etc) get turned off. Is it possible to have my MD suspend in addition to turning off these peripherals? I poked around a bit in "respond-to-events" but couldn't find an event for an idle-timeout type thing.
not atm
2) When I power off my MD via the power menu, is it possible to first have it turn off my peripherals?
not atm
Likewise, when my MD powers up via the power menu, can I have it turn on my peripherals once the associated devices are started?
no.
3) When my MD is powered down and I select an action via the orbiter such as play media, or any other action which requires the MD to be ON, can I have the MD turn on and then execute that action?
not atm
4) My MD takes 1:15 to resume from suspend-from-RAM. 80% of the resume seems to be starting the various LMCE devices. What might I do to speed this up? What is the likely bottle-neck for this process?
Remove devices you do not need.
As you can see here, I'd like to reduce the number of button pushes that SWMBO needs to do to access various media/functions and save as much power as possible

Understood. Especially point 2 and 3 are bothering me as well. To fix 4 I had setup a timed event to start the MD at 8pm. But nowadays, I just keep it running, as it also powers our door bell. I know, expensive door bell.