I'm going to address your questions one-by-one:
- Reach End Game Because That Is Where Everything Is
The endgame in LOTRO has said to be weak. What you do want to do is get to level 20 (max level is 75, soon wil be 85) as fast as you can. Note that going up levels in LOTRO is slower than in WoW. At 20, you unlock The Great Barows, your first Full-Fellowship instance, and Skirmishes. Once you get there, you can get a nice armor set that will last you until you unlock the next instance: Garth Aragwen, or you get the Evendim armor set.
- Groups must have 1 tank, 1 healer, 3 DPS
Again, no. First, LOTRO has group sizes of 6. And, that isn't the ideal group makeup. I usually like to have 1 Tank, 2 Healers, 1 DPS (me), 2 special (burgular, who starts powerful group attacks/heals and either another DPS or Captain/Loremaster. Loremaster does CC, and Captain Buffs and Heals)
Exact opposite. Once you are out of the beginning instance, you can get crafting. You can then immediately craft almost anything, from Armor to Weapons to Jewlerry to Food to Scrolls-That-Give-Nice-Effects and Class Items.
In LOTRO, as soon as you get a vocation, which is made of 3 professions, you get the standard lvl 7 recipes (unless you make Heavy Armor, in which case you get lvl 15 armor recipes, but the shield starts at 7). In order to craft these items, you must obtain certain components, like Ore and Wood. These must be gathered using one of the three professions you get in your vocation. You get these from around the landscape and looting enemies. However, you must first equip a certain tool, depending on what you are trying to get. For Ore, you need a mining-axe. For wood, you need a wood-axe. When you first get your profession, you get Inferior tools. You can buy Normal quality tools from the specific Crafting Vendor. If you have Metalsmith profession, you can use that to make better tools, which let you harvest ore faster, and get a higher Critical Success Chance. (Critted items have better dmg/stats). You can go onto Lotro-Wiki.com to get more information.
At near max level, Metalsmithing gets a little useless, as you get Class Armor Sets. But Legendary Items can be crafted.
Yes! You should do this! But unfortunately it gets really boring to do this. LOTRO has Deeds, not Achievements. Deeds give you FREE Turbine Points (which are used to buy premium items) and Virtues, which give you a stat boost, except they are pretty useless. Also, you get a Title, which shows off that you killed 30 trolls, etc.
If you have more questions, leave a comment or check LOTRO-Wiki.com. Or, ask the Forums or here. I frequently check the lord-of-the-rings-online tag.
Another thing I would say is that if you haven't picked a class, make a Elf-Hunter. In LOTRO each of the races get special stat boosts. Elves get +agility, which gives you +hit-chance, +crit_chance, +ranged-damage, but unfortunately Elves get -regeneration rates from a loss of Fate. Which doesn't really affect you. The Good outnumbers the bad.
Also Elves get a power-boost skill at a high level, which is useful when they are in a group on a long fight, as Hunters really burn down the Power bar.