The pump has to pull the gas up out of the top of the tank but I don't know how much actual pull it has since once gas gets past the high point it becomes a siphon effect. You should be fine pulling fuel from anywhere you could set the tank on the truck.
Don't get rid of your hard line. If you want a inline filter cut out a section and add the filter with the 2 supplied pieces of rubber hose. I use the metal filters.
I wouldn't be worried about ethanol drying out your rubber lines. It's been required that most rubber fuel line be resistant to it since they first put it in the fuel system. Sometime in the 80s I think. It will attract water and that can rust steel parts though. Make sure you get high quality fuel hose that says it is resistant.
http://www.gates.com/oreilly/tech_ti...patibility.pdf