(1) Yes, that's fine. If you use freezer bags, you don't need foil even. For longer-term frozen storage, vacuum sealed bags work better.
(2) Frozen food stored at 0°F (or lower) is basically safe to eat forever. Eventually, the flavor will be affected and you won't want to eat it (but it won't make you sick). Three to four months is reasonable in tightly-sealed freezer bags. Longer in vacuum sealed bags. The storage time is entirely a flavor thing, so you can get away with a little longer for strongly-seasoned meat (e.g., tacos) vs. lightly seasoned (hamburger). The sell-by date assumes storage at around 30°F (normal for refrigerated meat)
(3) I believe so, stuff should still be good a few days after the sell by date.
I think you've got a wide berth of possibilities but what's above seems pretty restricted. What you are listing above sounds like a pretty straight-forward Midwestern American chili. It has the features of the standard chili spices, beans and tomatoes, with a nice variety of meats.
As @Cold suggests, beets would be great to add for their sugar content. However, there are quite a few American recipes that utilize potatoes, so you might seek those out. Are there other vegetables to substitute that you recall as more native? Other beans maybe? How about caraway, dill, chervil, tarragon?
Vodka would seem like an easy route to go to appease the indigenous aspect, but I don't think it would yield much results in terms of impacting the flavor; especially in the context of the extant chili recipe. Unfortunately, I can't see the benefit of buffeting vodka against the flavors of cumin, coriander, clove, let alone hot peppers. On the other hand, Russians produce some amazing beers (I am a big fan of Baltika), and I would recommend looking into switching to a lager flavor or Imperial Stout as I mentioned above.
But for real, my spin would be to approach this from a Solyanka point of view (which would definitely give you ceiling room to try incorporating Medovukha); or really any of the other amazing cold Russian soups. Or perhaps try to incorporate mini dumplings like Pelmani, mini Kotlety, or use Shashlyk-style prepared meats for the chili. I would also consider trying to get some lamb in the recipe, in particular at the expense of the chicken.
But don't forget, chili is all about what you want to put into it (<-- self-promotional plug); not what the standard template lists.
Best Answer
Yes, as you said, the increased surface area makes it go bad faster. Not only that, but bacteria on top of the meat can now go to the middle with little resistance.
Consider the expiration date of ground beef and whole beef slabs.
Pork tends to go bad faster than beef, and freshly butchered pig smells of feces (especially right beneath the skin), but they still go bad faster.