If you don’t find a partner, your character gets as much xp (inspiration) from deconstructing runes from another of your characters as they do from runes from another player. Therefore, you can level up two characters simultaneously...which can be good because writs for enchanting are quick and cheap and offer good rewards.

Definitely go for as high quality as you can. A lot of players have piles and piles of otherwise useless denatas...if you ask around you might be able to get donations.