Very static around the black king.
This is correct. I've just checked the last 5 moves with Popeye 4.85 as "white 8hh[1a[#]d&2ad[#]]". This took about 1h.
I guess so 😉 In 8 moves one can easily reach a position like Ka8 Rg7f5 Sb8 - Kb6 Ba6…
I wouldn't call this a "cycle". Because all 6 black second moves are different, there is nothing that forces the…
bBe6 can be moved to g4 for a hs#10.5. Not sure if that's a gain, though...