What are Channels dev team plans now regarding other epg tools?
Might this open up a way to add a 'on-demand' recording ability down the road. For example, the History Channel is on-demand only I believe. Is missing guide data one of the main reasons why we can't record on-demand content?
The use of "global" in that press release is misleading. There has been no change to the list of countries where Gracenote offers guide data.
Recording on-demand content is not possible in Channels DVR and never will be. If that's important for you then you can consider other products like PlayOn.
Maybe they expand the list of countries sooner or later, perhaps we see soon 
It would be nice to be able to record on-demand content, but it certainly isn't a priority. I've used Playon before and didn't like it. I could always just use Philo to access on demand content if needed. There are really only a couple of channels I am 'missing' anyway. The main one being History. Who knows, it's possible they will open up a streaming option for that channel down the road anyway.
How easy would it be to import Play on recordings to Channels?
Channels doesn’t support importing local content at the moment.