How to prepare for printing in illustrator?

Question

Design

1) Tell me how to get rid of gradients when preparing a file for printing in Illustrator?
2) Do I understand correctly that you do not need to get rid of clipping masks?
And if it is necessary, is there another way besides rasterization?
3)
And did I understand the preparation algorithm correctly I was
guided by
https://compress.ru/article.aspx?id=14804#Semitrans... and gradients
www.avalon.ru/OpenLessons/Illustrator/Lessons/PrePrint
(if there are others - tell me)
1. The presence of an indent of 5 mm and an overhang of 3 mm
2. Fonts in curves
3. Embedding of linked objects (Palette Links \ Embed Image)
4. Transparency reduced
Object > Flatten Transparency
5. CMYK color model (in theory, it is done when creating a layout + is implemented when performing step 4, if Preserve Overprint and Spot Colors is not checked)
Filter > Colors > Convert to CMYK
6. Convert outlines to fills
Object > Path > Offset Path
7. Remove garbage
Select > Object > Stray Points
and
in the Swatches, Brushes, Styles and Graphic Styles palettes execute the Select All Unused command
8.
Gradients
Object > Expand Appereance (Object / Parse design)
BUT !!! It is inactive. Active only
Object > Expand (Objects / Parse)
Information about the document
available
settings options Object > Expand (Objects / Parse)

Answer 1

It’s a little unclear why you are writing all this, don’t bother your brains ...
Created a layout (in the CMYK palette) > export to TIF or PDF format (also in CMYK, of course) and everything is
about the presence of an indent of 5 mm and overhang 3 mm
I can say this, I prepare layouts for printing every day, many times and basically I put 2 mm for cropping (in a circle) and 4-5 mm should be from the edge of the crop to important elements (to the text is mandatory)
And disassemble the design (Objects /Disassemble) , etc. , it is not necessary to convert the stroke to a fill