tone-uncage-fire,
The difference between an apparent force and a real one is this:
A real force applies a true force, a push that comes from somewhere, and must be reacted. If I stand on firm ground and push you sideward, you must react that force or accelerate sideward.
An apparent force comes from the dynamic situation, and is a product of the acceleration state. It is actually imposed by the item's inertia and the aceleration of the situation. If you are doing 100 miles an hour in your car, and turn the wheel, you create an apparent force that seems to push you to the side, but this apparent force is really the resistance of your mass to the new path you are forcing it to take (pull your point of view out of the car to a point high above the earth, and see that you are forcing the car to scribe a circle).
This is true of the acceleration/deceleration of a hook's joint, where the blade is closer and then farther from the mast during its trip around, so an apparent force is needed to "create" that acceleration.
Regarding the Huey's tail rotor spin direction, only a member of the original design team can explain the reason for its original direction. Everything on a design is done for clear reasons, but problems can change the weightings of the original arguments, and force changes.
On Monday morning, the game seems so very clear, but on Sunday afternoon, things seemed a bit more complicated!