First off - Welcome @rbournival!
If you want to you could tell us a little bit more about yourself in Introduce Yourself! (2018-2022)
Are those noises just coming from the bass or also the amp?
Because it probably doesn’t matter if it’s just the bass. It’s easier to check when playing with headphones. Fret buzz is audible but what I call “string clacking” usually isn’t so if you aren’t annoyed too much by it I would not worry about it.
Also yes - to a degree it’s technique and will get better with time but I think fretting will never be completely silent.
Can’t help you there. Recently thought of buying flat and tapewounds just to compare but didn’t so I don’t have any first hand experience. You could look in some other threads about strings though. There are already some in the forum. You can use the search function (looking glass in the top right - on mobile only visible in landscape view)