buckets locally and live

I want to make sure I understand buckets when setting up a new site. So, I have a few questions. Sorry if they seem silly, but I want to get this right when I set up a site so I don't run into all the learning issues I had with my first set up.

1 - Is the buckets.php file the way to create buckets? I can't simply go into my resources folder and create folders under it and have them show as buckets?

1 - Creating a buckets.php - this file stores the path to the bucket. When working locally it's set to my local path. When I upload the site to the live server this file must be updated to reflect the new path, correct? OR, once the buckets are created locally and uploaded with the live site, and the perch content is set up to drop images or files into that bucket the config file is no longer needed?

2 - When setting up the buckets.php file do I need to create the actual folders in my resources directory, or is that done with the first image/file upload? IE my path is .../resources/interior/ do I need to create the 'interior' folder BEFORE I set up the buckets.php config file?

3 - Can my end user upload images and then assign them to buckets once they are uploaded? OR do they have to choose the bucket first and then upload the images into that bucket right away?

4 - Is there a way for the end user to create NEW buckets while in the CMS? I don't see a way to do this.