I am gutted I wasn't there for this one to see your bot in action, I had Azriel running for this and all. :( Anyway, well done on your first event!
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Upgrade from a 3s lipo to a 4s, overvolting the motors. More power.
Yup, I'd go for this. 14.8v over 11.1v should make a bit of difference in terms of speed and power.
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Ditch the plan of adding an axe and put the spare weight allowance to making the robot 4WD. I'm not sure how to do this with the Dual Sabertooth ESC. Would it be possible to wire two motors together on each side and wire them in to the ESC that way, or would that blow the board? Either that or rig up some drive pods with gears so one motor drives two wheels. I'm not sure yet.
The simplest option is to, as James said, is to put a motor for each wheel in and put them in parallel. I did this with my first Middleweight Kaizen, worked fine but you do need to ensure your ESC can handle it. If your ESC is a 2x25 then I suspect that might be OK though I would recommend putting a fuse per motor in (20A) to prevent the motors from stone killing the ESC and themselves (as I found out).
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I would like tank-style steering. It's what I'm used to and just using one stick was proving difficult at times. Again, whether this is possible with a dual ESC, I don't know.
If you mean like a RC car, then yes, you'd want to move your elevator channel to the rudder channel for steering. If you wanted full tank like control, you'd need a different transmitter (one with both sides where the up and down movements are sprung on it) and then turn off the mixing on the ESC, which you can do on the DIP switches. I happen to have one as it goes, might be persuaded to part with it.
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Custom made dustpan (will have to happen eventually), or reinforce the current ones. I'm contemplating a Sawblaze style 3-prong pan, but I'm not sure that is needed for now. I'll have a think. The pans held up reasonably, but they may need replacing and modifying if I keep them as is.
Yeah, I'd get the internals "right" first before remaking the body. If you ever wanted a hand in doing this, quite happy to help.