Comment to Examples of the different block designs?
Frankly I don't see any difference between the several choices.
IMO
That doesn't seem possible.
Are you referring to the page when you click the events tab? That page shows the events with the cover images.
Have you considered changing the events landing page to yoursite/page/events-calendar
That would show the month with highlighted days without images.
Changing to the calendar is a good idea, but need to figure out how to do this.