Geostationary satellites are in fact in a ring around the equator. No other orbit would keep them stationary in the sky.

Geosynchronous orbits are orbits at the same altitude, but not necessarily aligned with the equator. Most of what I know about orbital mechanics I learned from Kerbal Space Program, but given that it's very expensive to change orbital inclination, I would be shocked if geosynchronous satellites were returned to a flat inclination before being disposed of.

Geostationary satellites are launched from near the equator and then accelerated into a true eastward orbit when they're put into service (eastward because the earth rotates in an eastward direction and we want the satellite's orbit to synchronize with the earth's rotation). They could in principle be launched from far away from the equator e.g. Florida but that would require a ridiculous amount of fuel to get them into an equatorial orbit. Once they go out of service, their onboard thrusters fire (accelerating the craft in a mostly easterly direction -- not "up"!) which has the effect of raising their orbital height to a graveyard orbit.

No, geostationary satellites actually are in a plane around the equator. That’s the only way geostationary orbit works. Otherwise they’d be moving with respect to the surface.

So they already are aligned and just need to be moved to a higher orbit.