The static renditions are stored under jcr:content/renditions

What do you mean by this - I am using ReferenceSearch of AEM,

Changing the tags picker functionality is not possible. You can either validate and remove the tags or modify the tags selection on submission of dialog using listeners

If you are using core components component for navigation, I think "Hide in Navigation" page property will help in hiding a page from navigation.

I can see that the step just before the End Step in both the branches, is a participant step. Hence it will need a user's consent to go to next step. If you do not want a participant step, make it a process step instead.

If the dispatcher for those lower environments are public facing, you can use the dispatcher to access the json.

Congrats @arunpatidar 

You will have to invoke the upload using httpclient APIs in Java.Also, for authentication, you can use token based authentication - https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-learn/getting-started-with-aem-headless/authentication/overview 

After adding the image and clicking on done, did you verify in crx/de whether the image path is getting saved or not? This usually happens when the properties are not captured when you submit.

If you want all jcr: properties to be rolled out, then you should remove jcr:.* from the OSGi config. But I am not sure if it is right thing to do. You might have to check the impact.