If you want the free, turn-key reseller option, an alternative might be resellersclub.com. Also Godaddy has a similar resellers program (at an upfront cost). I don’t know which one is better, but I do know that Godaddy’s shared hosting has been very slow for me, so it might be hard to keep your customers happy.
No, as I haven’t tried either, in any capacity. I just wanted to give you some options. It’s generally better to have where to choose from - though having too many options can become paralyzing.
I don’t know what a freelancer would typically ask, but there are companies like platinumservermanagement.com that can manage a cPanel server for you. Generally, VPSs with cPanel are managed. In any case, it is cheaper to get the cPanel license through your provider, as they get to leverage their licenses volume to negotiate better pricing.
I don’t know why you would go for a VPS though. A smallish VPS is a bad idea if you plan to resell hosting from it - it’s relatively expensive due to licensing and overhead (performance may not be the best too), and a bigger VPS is an even bigger waste of money while you don’t need its resources.