Turning: if you’re having trouble turning in a certain direction, just remember that we tend to turn in the direction we are looking. Don’t over-think your right-turns; just try to look in that direction.
Free-mounting: It is common to perform a new-ish technique poorly at the beginning of a practice session. If you’re doing a jump mount, then that is awesome, but you should also find another, reliable mount which gives you more precise foot placement on the pedals. As a beginner, I used the tire grab mount very successfully. It allows mounting to be done slowly, it helps you start pedaling in a strong position, and it’s pretty safe.
Forward vs. Rear-ward dismounting: There are some good threads about this topic. On the one hand, it is safer to UPD forward than backward; on the other hand, a controlled dismount behind the unicycle is considered a basic skill. Not sure how to reconcile those two points. Nevertheless, when you learn some more technique, rear-dismounting will be easy and natural. Being able to slow to a stand-still is a good prerequisite to rear-dismounting.
Riding backwards: I recommend going back to your cheap 20" to practice this. I learned how to ride backwards shortly after learning to idle. The real breakthrough was learning how to ride forward, doing a quick half-rotation backward, then continuing to ride forward. It is good to have goals, but you may need to break those goals into incremental steps. This involves experimentation, not all of which helps you achieve a particular goal, but most of which helps improve your balance, which is good, in general, for unicycling.
Hopping: I remember, similarly, being able to hop, but only from an assisted mount position. Later I could hop at any time. I think your problem is related to the fear of falling backwards. To be safe, you’re erring on the side of leaning forward, which works when you’re riding forward, but which throws you off the front when you stop. Figuring out this issue should not only help you learn to transition from riding to hopping, it should also help you learn to idle and decelerate into a still-stand. You have to practice stopping with the unicycle and your lower-body out in front of your upper-body. When you practice this, at first, your momentum may still cast your upper-body over the unicycle, causing you to UPD forward. Later, you’ll be able to balance things correctly, and stop, quickly, into a still-stand. And, when your feet are even more in front of you, during the stop, you will have to pedal backwards to keep from falling backward. Pedaling backwards, BTW, feels pretty strange, at first. Don’t expect to get it the first 100 times. But, when you get it the first time, an important door will be unlocked.
Fear: As a a beginner, most of your dismounts are unplanned. That can be rather unnerving. We cannot intellectualize UPDs; our body just reacts. We know that UPDs are going to happen, but we don’t know when, and we don’t know exactly the details. I used to run on the same trails on which I now unicycle. I had a fair number of encounters with snakes, none of which I could see until I was close to them. I reacted, instinctively, every time. However, when I started wondering if there was a snake around the next bend, then every stick started looking like a snake, and I had to remind myself that, even were I to be bitten by a rattlesnake, my odds of survival were very high. Otherwise I was psyched out.
Back to the UPDs: as a beginner, bailing from the seat/pedals can be pretty ugly on occasion. Later on, however, your body starts to know the details of a UPD and how to deal with it. Whereas beginners fall off the pedals, more experienced riders learn to jump off the pedals, during a UPD. It just takes practice, practice, practice. In the meantime, I hope you’ve invested in some pads.
Good luck!
