This is largely thanks to cards that copy an opponents creatures or artifacts, such as Phyrexian Metamorph
In decks like Mono-Blue Spirit in Pioneer/Explorer, it's a good way to deal out even more damage if you don't need to hold mana up anymore
Attack decks had to respect the 20 life it gained in the middle, and control decks had to figure out how to beat the hand destruction and fast Necropotence
No, though you direct your attackers to a specific player, attacking does not target, and thus is not a crime
The specifics of the cards in your deck is up to you, but if youre struggling for inspiration then sites such as EDHREC can help massively thanks to the huge amount of data they collate and the rule of the masses
Or you could use it to drain counters from a big X-spell creature of your own that you cast earlier to make for an even larger X-spell this turn