Creston, judging by your posts you haven't played GW in what, 2 years? Pretty much every single thing you complain about has been changed.
I haven't played since about... 3 months after it came out. I took 3 characters to level 20, singlehandedly took at least two dozen groups of complete idiots through the game's toughest levels. (The word RETREAT does not enter into many people's vocabulary apparently, so 6 vs 35 monsters seems doable to them. Or the "Warrior" whom I warned beforehand, DO NOT CHARGE INTO THE POISON SWAMP TO ENGAGE THE MOB, LET IT COME TO YOU, and who would then, ofcourse, charge into the poison swamp, die in 4 seconds, then spam our chat channel with "Rez Plz." every 2 seconds so that we couldn't have any kind of tactical discussion anymore.)
All the things I complained about were the major problems back then, and at the time, Arenanet seemed to have 0 inclination of fixing them. I'm glad they've finally decided to listen to their actual customers. Perhaps GW2 will be worth playing.
but I do NOT want a leveling system in which your character becomes indefinitely more and more powerful. This would ruin GW as we know it.
It doesn't have to be indefinite. I'd be fine with a level 60 cap. But that way I can at least play a character for 50 or so hours before maxing it. I hated playing a character for 10 hours and oh, shit, I'm level 20. Well, I'm done playing this one.
Creston