Power settings with External Drive

Yes

Generally an safe eject should be good enough but shutdowing would not harm.

Well user rights depends on which NAS you buy and which network protocol you use.
As a starting point you could connect the USB Disk to the Vero and install the SAMBA server from the App Store. But the default configuration of the Samba server does not apply different permission as it is designed for a plug and play user solution.

Suggested read up

https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-do-i-set-permissions-to-samba-shares.html