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How do you run it?
Specifically, I'd like to draw your attention to these various activities:
Avoid Notice
Defend
Detect Magic
Follow the Expert
Investigate
Repeat a Spell
Scout
Search
Now, in my experience so far, folks pretty much stick to Avoid Notice, Defend, and Scout. These activities, should an Encounter happen, have tangible effects that contribute to the upcoming combat: The first potentially triggering class abilities (Rogue's Surprise Attack) as well as potentially starting combat Hidden(!), the second granting essentially a free action (Raise a Shield), the third granting the whole party a minor but useful mechanical bonus (to Initiative). This is all well and good.
To add, the activities Detect Magic, Follow the Expert, and Repeat a Spell all have potentially helpful impact should an Encounter happen. The first and third allowing the caster to have spells active upon combat starting, the second allowing, for example, the entire party to benefit from an increased bonus to their respective Initiative rolls (ex. leading Balance to cross a narrow rickety bridge, or leading an attempted ambush upon an opposing party using Sneak and potentially starting the combat Hidden). Too, this is all well and good.
This brings us to Investigate and Search. These two in particular I find harder to adjudicate. Here are the relevant texts:
You seek out information about your surroundings while traveling at half speed. You use Recall Knowledge as a secret check to discover clues among the various things you can see and engage with as you journey along. You can use any skill that has a Recall Knowledge action while Investigating, but the GM determines whether the skill is relevant to the clues you could find.
You Seek meticulously for hidden doors, concealed hazards, and so on. You can usually make an educated guess as to which locations are best to check and move at half speed, but if you want to be thorough and guarantee you checked everything, you need to travel at a Speed of no more than 300 feet per minute, or 150 feet per minute to ensure you check everything before you walk into it. You can always move more slowly while Searching to cover the area more thoroughly, and the Expeditious Search feat increases these maximum Speeds. If you come across a secret door, item, or hazard while Searching, the GM will attempt a free secret check to Seek to see if you notice the hidden object or hazard. In locations with many objects to search, you have to stop and spend significantly longer to search thoroughly.
...
That all said, here are my questions:
1) Can you both Avoid Notice while leading Follow the Expert to Sneak?
2) Does a PC using Detect Magic or Repeat a Spell have the option to roll Arcana, Nature, Occult, or Religion (by Tradition) for Initiative?
3) If using Investigate, does the PC get a free Recall Knowledge check as part of rolling Initiative?
4) Is the only difference between Scout and Search that the former grants allies a +1 to Initiative and the latter does not?
5) What role does Scout's Warning play given the redundancy with the Scout Exploration Activity?
Cheers.
2 is circumstantial. E.g. use of detect magic. If the hazard is a magical trap then yes, if it's a random creature or perhaps a patrol discovering the group then no, because the character's focus is somewhere else.