re: When did the right stop being about limited government and start peddling conspiracies?

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This wouldn't really be a Whataboutism, assuming our choices are just between Policy A and Policy B.

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Sure it is. If I'm arguing that Trump's foreign policy in Syria is dangerous and a Trump supporters responds that Obama had a similar policy in order to support Trump - that's whataboutism. It's illegitimate because we are discussing the substance of the policy.

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No, this is not legitimate. If Poster A starts a thread about Trump's taxes and Poster B responds with something about the Clinton Foundation, thats completely bogus.

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Only if they are trying to defend the substance of the argument which would be fiscal relationships. But if the point is simply to point out that Poster A doesn't care about illicit fiscal relationships until the other side has them, then it is a legitimate means of discrediting Poster A. It's doesn't mean the substance is wrong; only that the Poster is selective in his outrage and unprincipled.

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Even if Poster A doesn't have any credibity, that still doesn't change anything regarding Trump's taxes and by taking that road you're no better than the person you claim has no credibility.

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I disagree. Pointing out hypocrisy is important because it harms credibility down the line. There is a reason why no sane person acknowledges Huffington Post or Info Wars - it's because they have developed a pattern of discredited reporting. It's the same with individual posters. Even though they may stumble on valid points from time to time, anything they put forth should be taken with a major grain of salt.