Indicative conditional vs. subjective imperfect quiz

Indicative conditional vs. subjective imperfect quiz
 

True or false:
1) Both 'Me gustaria.....' and 'Quisiera..... ' mean " I would like...."
2) These expressions are interchangeable in any sentence
3) 'Me gustaria' is in the indicative conditional tense whilst 'quisiera' is in the subjective imperfect tense.

4) Essay portion of the quiz:
If your answer was true for questions, 1,2 and 3, explain why we have different moods and tenses for the two expressions.
If your answer is not true for all 3 explains, explain why one (or more) is false

What are your answers?

My answers all true but don't know the essay question answer Although I might also add, 3 being true implies 2 is false which implies 1 is false. Conclusion, I need a little help with understanding.

Your answer true for all is correct.
Think about common things for verbs that introduce a wish or will to answer your essay question.

I do not understand why two different verbs /expressions that mean the same thing, are conjugated in different tenses/moods.

The two are both expressing a wish. It is the wishing that can be said different ways. We can do the same in English. Below I've used four different ways to say the same thing, yet the verbs are all different and using different tenses/moods.
Variety is the spice of life.

I would like a safe trip for you.
I hope you have a safe trip.
I wish you a safe trip.
May you have a safe trip.

I think the mood is different. Quisiera seems ultra polite, or even shy. Me qustaría is more direct, the imperative dame or ponme is the most direct. Also, different counties have different standards of what is polite and what is reticent.

ok, so what does 'querria' mean , or perhaps more relevantly, what is the difference in meanings between 'querria' and 'quisiera'

Because both can be used to express a wish, they both mean "I would like." The tense or mood isn't important, but how your audience perceives your wish may make a little difference. Simply latch on to what you hear others around you using in different situations. You can't go wrong.

I'll mention here that a wish (or hope) may be expressed starting with only the conjunction 'Que' followed by a subjunctive clause:
Que le vaya bien.
Que todo salga bien. (May everything go well.)
Que sea buenísima la fiesta.

And you can use 'Ojalá (que)' in like manner.

Thanks Rusty, I guess I'm just beating a dead horse. There must be some subtle , perhaps unexplainable reason why people don't say Me gusta and/or quierra but they will say Me gusta and/or quisiera.

Whatever that reason is, I can accept as being unimportant

Using «me gusta» hasn't been discussed in this thread. That phrase doesn't express a wish, so it doesn't pertain. Perhaps you meant to type «me gustaría».

Everything in this thread has been about different ways to express a wish. As you've learned, there's more than one way to do so.
In addition to «me gusta», you also wrote «quierra». Perhaps you meant to type «querría», which is interchangeable with the other ways discussed above to express a wish.

In case you did mean to write «me gusta», it isn't interchangeable with «quisiera», «querría», or any other way to express a wish.