Some questions about root and roms topic

I was never into following what is going on with smartphones. So i have a few questions so that i dont feel lost.

So i want to root my phone. I have done it before, its pretty simple, i will just follow the guide. Are there any reported bricks coming out because of rooting moto g2 or is it relatively safe?

Then since i was going to do a hard reset for the root i thought about using another ROM. I dont generally know anything about mods. I only know the famous cyanogen mod. Is it working good with moto g2? Are there any problems? Is development ongoing? I think i saw a guide but i missed the link btw.

Now i generally dont care about my phone looking great with 3D stuff and gimmicks for showing. I want it to be as fast as it can be and ready to do as many things as it can. Thats why i am rooting it btw. So that i can do things that unrooted wont permit me and so that i can block adds for example in order to make it a bit faster and less power/data draining.
So is the CM mod okay with what i need?

And finally, since lollipop is coming out, should i wait for it to be available before i do anything in case that there would be a lollipop CM for moto g 2 or this would probably take too much time so i better do the hard reset now? Btw i am not sure if CM mod can be upgraded without hard reset in which case i am good to go.

P.S. I am not even sure if CM is really better than official. Any hints why it is better?


Thanks for your time.