[mothered]

I have had an apple account for years as well, but have only ever bought my products (phones mainly)  from third party retailers. Will this lower my chances of success with DNA?

As long as the transaction Is demonstrated on your Apple account, then that's all that matters.

once you report the laptop stolen will you ever be able to use it with your Apple ID or does it have to be used without connecting it to ur Apple ID?

Apple does have the capacity to check the activity on a given device.

Whether or not they follow It up, remains to be seen.