Pretty sure I should root, but should I switch from TouchWiz?

I just got a Rogers Note 4 in Canada and spent the past few days customizing things to my liking. I am a minimalist and using Nova, ZUI Locker and Whicons (and a new Dialer) I have everything looking great. The only thing I can't stand is the Notification bar pull down thing. I can't change anything about it without rooting and it's insanely ugly. I'd also like to change the status bar. So, I should probably root and use Xposed (I think?) to change that to my liking. I'm a very aesthetically driven person and rooting just to change that fugly bar is enough reason for me.

But on the subject of switching from TW, I'm not really sure what to do. My last phone was a 5 year old Windows 7 phone so this one has been a dream so far. It feels snappy, I don't notice any lag, and there isn't a lot of bloatware that I can see. Some S stuff I'll probably never use, but storage out of the box was only a few GB (sits at 6GB atm with some large games installed) and RAM usage after a boot is around 60%.

Anyway with all these things considered, should I bother changing ROMs? I know people hate TW, but other than the Notification/Status bar being unchangeable, I can't really find any issues. Just looking for some thoughts from the experts.

[Q] Problems Cannot Connect Please Make Sure Correct Charging Dock Is Connected

Is there a way to by pass this, who would connect their galaxy gear while it's charging isn't the idea to connect it while it is off the dock, would look clunky and you'd be limited to space by the usb cable adding a leash to your wrist...

It pairs and everything downloaded the 11 updates and what not and now I'm prompted by this stupid popup. The seller sent me a generic dock that doesn't even snap around the watch instead it has 2 pegs and a button that ya press to release the pegs and take the watch out of the dock.

Do I need to get an official sammy dock in order to start using this damn thing? Really! LoL SMH!!
_

Also FYI, as my signature states I'm on a T-Mobile Note Edge (N915T) Hyperdrive KitKat 4.4.4 and got the Samsung Gear Manager downloaded the the Galaxy App Store, just pisses me off that after waiting a week to find out now I've gotta wait even longer in order to use it possibly.

Looking for an app that I'm not sure even exists

Hi,
I'm looking for an android app that will basically do the same thing as cortana does on the windows phone. I have a for sync enabled vehicle and a subaru with it's generic bluetooth offerings and both systems leave a lot to be desired especially the subaru! I want to be able to queue google now or s voice hands free via both cars but neither have the ability to launch svoice, google now, or in an iphones case siri without the need to push a button the on phone. I would like to do the same thing as with cortana on the windows phone where I just place a fake number in my contacts and use the cars automated dialing system to "call" the app. For instance with wp8.1 you can push the button and tell sync to "Call Cortana" and it will allow you to command cortana as if it were a phone conversation if this makes any sense. I honestly do not know why more car manufacturers don't just allow you do use the bluetooth launch button system like you could with a normal headset.

How to make sure that the screen is dead

I put my phone to charge before sleeping yesterday, when i woke up, i unlocked the screen and phone was charged fully,
Suddenly after 3 or 4 seconds my screen went black! but i still can hear touch sounds, my computer recognizes the phone storage and i can feel the vibration when i turn it on or off.
I've also tried wiping and flashing a stock ftf through flashtool, nothing.

So my guess is the screen is completely dead and i will be replacing it shortly but before
is there any way to make sure that the problem is with the touch panel only? so it's not related to the motherboard or any other component?

Just making sure, no root for OF1?

Just switched from iPhone to S6, love the phone but wish I could root. Kinda confused on the whole thing so just making sure there is no way to downgrade, upgrade, or root my current version? This is because verizon restricts the bootloader? If it is true and rooting is no an option right now then can anyone give me a very rough estimate of when I might be able to root. I understand there is no way to know but since I have never rooted maybe you would know how long these things normally take. Thanks for all your support.