I don't think AQ needs to bet turn. You're not really folding out many better hands and not getting called by worse. I do see merit in betting turn to set up a bet turn bet river bluff but I think there are much better hands to do it with than AQ, mainly any of the 100 semibluffs that exist on this board that don't have solid showdown value.

I agree, especially given the board texture. I don't think you have to bet this turn with AQ since you have some showdown value.

On such a low connected board I would expect villain to continue betting his pairs and 7x on the turn.

With what will be the best hand quite often I would make a small bet around 20c for protection and to hopefully dissuade villain from bluffing the river, allowing us to check behind rather than bluff catching with ace high in a 2NL game.

I feel AQ here has way too much showdown value to warrant bluffing this turn. I can't think of a single better hand that will fold. It is unlikely that the villain has a fush draw as they probably would have been betting the flop themselves so there aren't actually that many terrible river cards for you.

My preference here would be to check back and then call a river bet on any card below a T that falls on the river.