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That's all good advice, and ideally things will work out as described. Now on the flip side, there may be profs. you want to get in touch with who simply aren't as active in the department, i.e. not teaching field courses, not regularly attending seminars. In that case, email might be necessary. And even if you have established an informal relationship with someone, it may be easier to contact them through email to first set up a meeting to discuss research ideas, since they may be rushed bouncing between lectures and seminars, while they can answer email at their convenience.
As for etiquette for email, just use common sense. Be fairly concise and brief. I think you should give them some idea of what your interests are in such a message, but make it concise, postcard-length. 2000 word emails don't work well in any context of life. And don't start the relationship with an email to a prof. you've never met, saying "could you be my advisor?" That would be like proposing marriage before having a first date!! Start it with a casual, "I'd like to talk about this idea I have that I think you'd find to be of interest" and have some conversations, and see how well you interact with each other, and see if this someone you can imagine working with regularly for the next 3-4 years. Try out different faculty, and when you know, then you ask.
As for details like first-name basis or not, I do Prof. [last-name] if I've never met them, but first-name every time thereafter. I do know students who do Prof. [last-name] always, but that's just not me.
As for Prof's retiring, I think for the most part Profs will reduce their duties as they approach that time. By all means contact profs that might be on the verge of retirement, but I would hope that would be honest with you if you were seriously considering them. A greater problem than prof's on the verge of retirement is asst/assoc profs who are approaching tenure, because that's the point when you're likely to see the most turnover. So yes, take these things into account, but talk to many people before you reach the point when you need an advisor. Even if you do everything right, some people you want to work with may leave, it happens, and then you have to suck it up and deal with it, and hopefully you're well diversified in your relationships among the faculty, or the faculty will like you enough to continue working with you after they move on.
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