How does this compare to the SNES version? Is the route about the same? Do all the same skips work?

I’m learning LTTP on SNES and it would be kind of cool to practice on my gameboy when I’m at work on breaks and stuff

Is whistle sprinting infinitely optimizable depending on the speed you mash the button? Or is it consistent regardless of how fast you mash?

For the NG categories and knife only categories are the pre order bonus items allowed? The defense coin makes a big difference doing knife runs. Technically you get it in a "new game" but need to have pre ordered I think.

The current top (and only) knife only run has a few instances of loading from a save which saves time since it rewinds the in game time. Is this allowed?