The variants for 118A and 118B should be swapped so the newsstand (regular) is the A variant.
No, the way it is now is the consistent way we have it in core. Whitman is the direct edition.
Whitmans are not the equivalent of a direct edition. Whitmans are books that were later sold in 3-packs. At this point in time the newsstand is the most common edition and is equivalent to direct for this era. Just look at the rest of the issues in this title to see - they are done right.
Nope, they were distributed as direct editions. What didn’t get sold (overstock) was distributed trough packs later on. What is still incorrect now will be cleaned up when we go trough this series.
Is not the purpose of the “A” variant to indicate the most common version of a book that people are most likely to have?
Not necessarily, it depends on what the year. Whitman being on A has been implemented in 2023, we answered this extensively as to why we did this then. It’s also (for Marvel) only for 2 years. You’re pretty late with noticing this 
Is there a thread or section that you can send me a link to that has all your guidelines for how you categorize and code things?
We don’t have a link with guidelines