Building my 'first' system - Advice on Phono preamp please

dynamic_driven, yes, you want to stick with a moving magnet cartridge.
The Audio Technica VM95ML is an amazing cartridge for the money.
To not let appearances fool you. Manufacturers know many people shop with their eyes and not their ears. Warning bell should ring when you see a manufacturer clearly going out of the way to make their equipment look sharper than it really has to be. You want to spend your money on performance not fancy chassis and CNCed details especially at the lower end of the market. The great value manufacturers like NAD and Parasound go out of their way to spend as little as possible on appearance and as much as possible on the circuitry. Parasound in particular has a habit of building very reasonably priced equipment that challenges and even betters equipment costing 5 to ten times as much. 

Yes, absolutely.

Dynamic, The used Profect will do fine just be prepared to get new tubes. Order them from Upscale Audio or RAM Audio. Both test all their tubes and grade them so you know exactly what you are getting. On a phono preamp you do not want to skimp on tubes. Get the quietest ones you can afford. I highly recommend these https://upscaleaudio.com/collections/preamp-tubes/products/gold-lion-ecc83-b759?variant=295304225096... if you can afford them. There are less expensive tubes available. As long as you stick to "Kevin's Stash" you will be fine.