But by that way, it will not be fully protected, so to make it safe it's better to install a case unless if you have extended warranty with accidental damage protection, then you are fine.
By October we should see big improvement from Microsoft on their system (Redstone 3). But as for now, there is an update that should be released by April from Microsoft but don't aspect many features on this update.
It's support CDMA network as a hardware, but Verizon needs first to approve it to their network to be able to use it. Based on HP, they are working on it to support Verizon and Sprint networks.
I don't know exactly why you have this issue, but on my HP Elite X3, it show to me like "3/9, 5:00p, SIM 1 Text". So, I can still get the date, time and which SIM with no issues. Maybe because the Lumia 950 backup made some changes on your phone.