Totally agreed about sleep. I like their ruling, but hate trying to explain to friends why they should stop winning, lol. Didn't one of the Pokemon Stadiums have a rule preventing more than one from being frozen or something?
And I'm so scared of Blaziken right now. Everyone probably has one, and he's pretty tough to counter. Sometimes I think they're a little overzealous though, like when Garchomp and Salamence were banned for a little while, or Swift Swim/Drizzle banned.
On that last question, I don't think so. If Spiky Shield is like protect and endure and detect, it probably uses the same 'did you use one of those moves last turn' check. I'm just guessing though.