There aren't any flights directly from the US to Thailand, it's too far. You don't need a direct flight though, Phuket just has to be your first and last stop into Thailand (can't transfer from BKK).
They've said that 3 times in the past year. Remember not only 1 month ago when vaccinated foriegners only had to quarantine for 7 days? Remember 3 weeks ago when Thailand approved the vaccine passport? Remember the travel bubbles?
Just have to keep trying mate. There are definitely banks in Bangkok that will open an account with a tourist visa, maybe you'll need to make a trip to a big city.
So there are many professions in Thailand that are restricted to Thais. For a senior level position that is open to Forigners, you need to have a significant advantage over the Thai counterpart with the cost, visa, workpermiting issues to deal with.
Most non teaching positions I see forigners in are in the tech space, SEO, software engineering, coding, ext.
#2 Depends on what they're looking for, teaching positions almost never get hired from abroad.