Not really sure where to start, need help..

Yes, you can test for compression with the valve cover off. The pix under the valve cover is good; does not look too awfully bad. I've seen more than 10X that amount of caked on old oil crud on things.

That sure is a lot of dirt and crap on the intake and exhaust manifolds. Carefully pick that stuff off and keep it out of the engine.

Since you need a new valve cover gasket, get one (preferrably the rubber one) and use a very thin skim coat of RTV on the under side of the valve cover and carefully place the gasket on and let it set for awhile. It will act like a weak glue to keep the gasket in place while you place it back on the engine. The rubber gasket will be re-usable a few times.

BTW, you spin thing CW, not CCW. But at least it is moving. That is a good sign. I would keep applying some penetrating oil a bit at time and turn the engine over a few times, just to get thing loosened up. The pistons and rings are not stuck in the cylinders now, but the rings have to be free in the piston ring grooves; so working it more with more oil will loosen that up. Marvel Mystery Oil is a common recommendation for that; it frees AND lubricates better than regular penetrating oil. You can do more to help the rings later when you get the engine running.

While you are freeing up rings and such, use a squirter to squirt MM Oil between the coils of the valve springs. The idea is to try to get some MM Oil on the valves stems and down the valve guides, so they are well lubed at start up and hopefully won't stick. Put a lot in there so at least some gets where it needs to go. The rest will run down around the lifters, which is good. DO the MM Oil and hand turning several times and vale stem lubing before changing the oil.

When yo do change oil. pour at least half a bottle over the valve train up top; actually, you can just slowly dump it all in with the valve cover off. (And put 1/4 quart in the oil filter, you can't put in much or it will just run out when you install the filter.) I woudl change the oil before running the compression test.

Once you get some of this basic cleanup and freeing of parts done, then set valve lash, and then run the compression checks. The fuel system can come after the compression test; just disconnect the rubber line from the input of the fuel pump so you don't draw dirt and rust and gum up from the tank while you crank the engine.

For the tank, it can even be pulled flat on the ground without too much trouble. You need to get the fuel line and ground wire and fuel gauge wire off the front of the tank, up behind the rear axle. Then get the filler tube out; it inserts into the tank in a round rubber gasket; that process varies with car model. Then there should be a strap under the tank held with 1 or 2 bolts that you loosen and drop the tank. Get the old fuel out. If it had ethanol in it, that will absorb water and the slowly turn into a gummy gel and that has to be dissolved out with fresh gas or another solvent. Inspect inside carefully for rust; if so, then there are ways to get a lot of that out with gravel, nuts &bolts, etc.

Disconnect the rubber hose form the fuel line to the fuel pump up by the engine. Blow the fuel line out. Replace all rubber fuel hoses now. Once this fuel system cleaning is done and the new lines a fuel is in, you can crank the engine with the fuel line off the carb and routed into a bucket or can and check for a good pulsed stream of fuel, and check fuel delivery. That is a 1st basic check of the fuel pump.

This adds up to a lot of work, but the biggest mistake is to try to jump straight into a running engine and let problems make themselves worse with running while things are not right.