Member List customization using views module

Now, to help me understand this better, what would be done differently if I wanted to add a small search function at the top of the members list that would allow you to sort members by their name? Is there a way to allow searchers to pull up profiles by the month/year they were created? My suspicion is that these features that should be implemented on another page all together rather than in the view I am trying to create to simply format the way the standard member list page is displayed. Am I correct in this assumption?

Typically, I see custom tpl.phps in the form that indicates the type of node using the override. In this case, using what I usually see as formats, the custom tpl.php would be node-profile.tpl.php however, if I chose that as the name, what would I do when I start applying things to the actual individual user's profile pages? would this tpl.php automatically apply this view to those pages as well?

Outside of the naming questions, the node-whatever.tpl.php should include divs to break up the content (at least this is my understanding). For this I would create div classes for each area such as "Personal Information" and "User Picture" as div classes and then specify their styles in style.css, is this accurate? Should stylings for a view such as what I am describing have predefined div sizes, such as 200px etc or would best practices dictate that I use a percentage such as 50%? Is Drupal smart enough to constrain the information that is supposed to go into those divs into whatever proportions I choose?

Lastly, do I need to input code into the template.php to alert my theme to use this new view when the page, in this case www.drupalinstallation/profile, is called? What is the code I put in? Do I need a separate entry in template.php for each and every view that I want to apply?

I fully understand if anyone who has actually taken the time to read this lengthy post (that clearly defines what a total Drupal noob I am) doesn't have time to answer everything, or even anything, but I would truly appreciate the help from anyone who does have the time. If there are good explanations already posted any links would be greatly appreciated (and would save you the time of typing out 'remedial Drupal' lessons to me :P ).

I got into some trouble earlier in this 'journey' when I found some old posts on how to make profile changes using pure template.php overrides, style.css, and node-xxx.tpl.php overrides, and after spending a lot of time, I was informed that those posts were more or less outdated methods and that I should be using views to gain this effect. For this reason it is now hard for me to tell if the post I am reading is even a practice currently used, outdated/depreciated, or should be considered a "best practice". This is why I posted this long dissertation here, hoping for a little explanation from users familiar with views etc, and the possibility that I will get pointed in the right direction and successfully avoid finding outdated methods and learning 'bad habits' before I realize they are wrong.

Thanks again for taking the time to read this and sorry it was soooooo long.