No recommendations are required. Look closely at the procedures and you'll note the respective SA will reach out to the applicant IF they want any additional information (such as a rec.) I suppose they want to wade through the least amount of material in the initial assessment prior to identifying the scarce 1-2 per SA they will assign to that Nom category. It's a very rare Nom. Willy Wonka gave out more Golden Tickets.
Yes, the words are confusing but if you look at the timeline, the deadline for class of '25 has to be 31 Jan 2021. If it was Jan 2020, that would literally the first thing any applicant had to do in applying and would be well before many/most had taken the standardized tests.
No. There is typically no confirmation of receipt.