If a maneuver is used to create an aspect it only impacts on play if a fate point is spent (beyond the initial tag) correct? So to use an example from the book if I take cover I am actually no harder to hit unless unless I spend a fate point?

I Like the fate system but this seems a bit odd and I can see some really odd situations developing, like blinded characters fighting normally until someone spends a fate point.

I'm assuming you mean the Nevernever when you say that.

Very true, though what about other methods of attack besides Intimidation.  I mean we also have Presence, Rapport, Deceit, and possibly even Empathy, though that's probably more useful for assessing Aspects to tag.

Also, what if the outcomes you're aiming for are things like YOU LIKE ME, GRUDGING RESPECT, YOU WANT TO HELP ME, I REMIND YOU OF YOU, or any other version of gaining reputation points?

Even with Intimidation, I can see an outcome of YOU THINK I'M PLUCKY AND FUNNY.  I remember some scenes form movies where the hero ends up drinking buddies with someone even after throwing a few punches.

Oh yes, I see you're correct.  Still, getting Taken Out socially or even Conceding does give a decisive advantage to the winner of the conflict.  If the Social attacker Takes Out his opponent, he gets to decide what the opponent does, and that may include not continuing to fight.

Generally speaking, getting taken out applies only to the venue of the attack in question. For instance, getting taken out socially means a character has lost his cool and is totally flustered, but he may still be able to punch someone or run away. Getting taken out physically might mean the character is physically incapacitated, but he may still interact socially in some way (though unconsciousness and death do tend to put a small crimp in such things).

1) Is there any guidance anywhere on how long Thaumaturgical rituals should take? Is it just arbitrarily determined by the GM? Also, is it possible to make up Complexity gaps by taking extra time (as per the sidebar on pg. 316)?

2) It seems like making Workspace rating equal to Resources minus two makes them next to useless unless you have Resources 2 or higher. Declarations have a base difficulty of Mediocre, after all.

Compels should be used for a lot of stuff representing how the aspect is holding them back, but a certain degree of it should be done without compels just be following basic story logic.  If your character has a broken arm, he can't use it to shoot a gun compel or not.  It would be nice for the GM to give you a fate point when this significantly hampers you, but just because he doesn't, doesn't mean your broken arm is suddenly functional enough to have a full range of uses.

Demons don't have 'free will' in quite the sense mortals do, but anything with a name or sense of individual identity has more than enough individual agency to break a Circle.

And no, there's no evidence getting out of a Circle would do anything of the kind. Now, if he was surrounded by a circle once freed from the wards...that might drop his Ectoplasm and shunt him back to the Nevernever, but only if they were being maintained externally. I wouldn't bet against Chauncy having some internal energy reserves against such an eventuality.