i see docs and threads stating to use logbook to see what events triggered autoamtoins to debug - but my logbook takes about ~4 minutes to load so thats not useful for debugging.
is there other ways ? and is there a place where you’ll get warn/logs about misspelled/not found entities referenced in automations ?
logger component. It should be on by default if you just recently started using HA. Set it to info, use Notepad++ or something similar to view the file. Don’t use regular notepad. You need to use a notepad software that updates live when changes occur to a file.
And full restart needed when changing timers and automation ? Reloading automation does not seem to pick up changes 
It depends. Is the automation correct? Reload automations should reload them and activate them.
I wanted to add a reference: