AC2 is supposed to have housing, banking, and player-run shops (well, vendors) by the end of the year -- of course, if they stay on track with that, it'll be amazing. I imagine February.
They're learning what their playbase wants. Turbine's gotten a lot of flak for doing the rebalancing pretty much at launch, but it's MUCH better to do it early than it is to wait until everyone's got high level characters that will be slaughtered by the redesigns.
The game has come a long way even since launch, but it has a long way left to go before it will live up to its predecessor (if it ever can, given the radical differences in style).
Content is still coming in monthly, but they're waiting on lore until after this new Hero system, and some of the other mechanics they want to get in.
Player and monster rebalancing was necessary, but it has hurt quite a bunch of classes in solo play, and they're not planning on giving solo some focus until .. February?
The server consolidation is a good thing, it's currently a group-oriented game, and with so many servers, with low populations, it was hard to enjoy the game. I'm imagining in a few months time, it'll suprise most who quit after beta, or the first month or two of retail.