To sum up the last few pages of post... This sale sucks really bad, probably pick up this and that or possibly that.
The sales will always suck if you support them with buying anything. Even buying one thing says to them this was good enough.
It appears that you earn 1 star for every $150 you spend per year. So to hit 10% you would need to spend $750 in a year on the marketplace and keep gold active for the entire year as well.
I most likely will do the same for BF4. Treat it as a $5 month long rental for now. When more games are added then I may jump on the yearly option. It will probably turn out to be an excellent value about a year from now.
Submitted mine with desktop and have received all 8 of them in less than 12 hours. I submit them one a day around 8PM and receive the codes the following morning by 5AM. I am 8 for 8 with 2 more to submit.
No, you are required by law to pay the tax regardless if Microsoft collects it or not. If you were to buy the season pass at the local retailer and neither the retailer nor Microsoft charged you tax then you would still be required to pay it to your state. Most folks would not and do not pay it...