1. I do not care much for mounts. Terrain in Xsyon is too rugged to make fast travel on mounts believeable. I like carts for transporting goods.
2. Transporting goods, let me get 10 logs or 100 bricks from somewhere to my camp.
3. In my opinion: only for hauling large loads.
4. I like your wheel barrow and bear cart suggestion. I'd be happy if we only got the wheel cart for a start because I assume that for the beer (nice typo cart we would need taming.
5. Carts, carts, carts!