The UK's ICO also has a good structured summary: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-da...
In general I agree with the sentiments in this article. I've probably spent a total of three to four days reading around the GDPR and I don't really see what's special about this law other than it's imposing decent standards on what was in effect a wildly unregulated industry in people's personal data. If you have a broad distrust of any government activity then I suppose any new laws with "fines up to €X" might feel like "I run a small site on a Digital Ocean droplet and I'm at risk of a €2m fine out of the blue." But that doesn't make it true.
It's not a minimum.
Nothing in the GDPR states this. It's obviously the intent, but ultimately it's left up to the bon vouloir of EU regulators.
It is perfectly legal under the GDPR to make an example out of you by levying the maximum fine for a first offense, and without warning.
No it isn't. Read Article 83.