No mention of Firewatch so I’ll be the first to say it, it caught me off gaurd how good it was.
Only thing to add to what has already been said: Office related stuff will be your biggest issue. Personally I suffer a lot with the web version of the Office apps, so I recommend dual boot or VM for when using office.
I would only be swapping once and then having the windows SSD in the USB C hub. Would you still recommend that I install the SSD straight away in the laptop and set it up from there?
I don’t think its completely unnecessary, it helps save some time