The EN pathway is fine, if you're using it as a stepping stone to RN. A lot of wards like EN's for the amount of placements they do in their study compared to a new grad RN. However as an EN there are some restrictions on what you can do and some if the (in my opinion) more exciting areas won't touch you. As has already been said by the end if second year uni you can work as an EN, although I'm fairly certain phlebotomy pays better than an EN so you'll probably want to stick with that.
Yes and no. Now that EN's all get the same quality as the old EEN's the gap between EN and RN isn't that big. From an employer perspective there isn't much cost difference between EN's and RN's so they normally go for the RN. That said there are still many jobs for EN's in some areas.
I started studying at 25 after a stint in defence. In my course I had in terms of guys, a former sparky, a 40 year old single dad, a bunch of 18/19year old, a bunch of paramedics/AIN's/EN's of all ages. Nursing requires a level of maturity as you can deal with some pretty heavy issues from the start, there's no way you can know if you're in the right place until you do it. I have seen great 18 year olds on placement, I've seen immature and shit 30 year olds on placement (and vice versa). Fortunately we're not doctors and the public expect us to be idiots so you'll never get a "aren't you a little young to be a nurse" thrown at you unlike our more educated friends in the health profession. As a guy on the ward, you'll be popular with the NUM as you (generally) don't get involved in the bitching and clicks that are present in almost every ward. Your reward fir this is generally a fast approval for courses and movement to areas of responsibility (if you are good at what you do). Your burden; you will generally get all the heavy lifting and aggressive / violent patients because "you're a guy and can handle it".
If you don't love it you wouldn't go*, it's simply too much work for not enough pay with some occasionally very distressing moments. But yeah, for now I love what I do. Do I see myself doing this fur the rest of my working life? Probably not.
*that doesn't mean you will never bitch and moan about how shit your job is.
From my phone after work. Typos can eat one.