We switched to Authorize.net because the business risk at Stripe was just too high. The api isn't near as good, but it works, and we don't worry about random account freezes.
If you've been processing for years, you've passed their underwriting process and have nothing to fear as long as you don't have a sudden increase in chargebacks or a wild shift in payment volume / average sale.
Yes. But if you don't want to deal with PayPal/Stripe, this is what you need to do. Stripe was never different from PayPal in this. People just don't take payment processing seriously enough to care.
It all depends on your setup. The technical work was only a week for us. Getting approval and setup with a merchant account takes more time though, and they even came to do a physical inspection of our place.
I have been on stripe for years but stories like this makes me panic