Almost stopped reading here. It is impossible to ask people to make an independent evaluation, unless they are completely new to gaming. Many people are only asking for things they have seen work in other games; this does not become a bad thing solely because these features are found in other games. Neither should tradition trump potential improvements.
On most other points you made I do not disagree.
This way of assessment I do somewhat disagree with, because by that reasoning you could make the argument that the free classes are supposed to suck because they're cheap.