Great post! Extremely well thought out and written on a sensitive topic that could have easily become an emotional rant!

One item for consideration is creating new end game gear quests similar to the Mystery & Cyber quests in AO to your new content or boredom section. I see this as a positive as:

1) it addresses the rich/poor gap, in that a casual player can earn quality gear (especially now that the experience curve has been reduced leading to less time to earn gold as a player climbs the ladder to end game)
2) it gives collectors something to grind for
3) it gives STS the opportunity to sell a player an elixir, vanity, etc... as the player may log in more often in order to complete the quest and obtain his/her next piece of gear.

Or instead of creating a whole new set of gear, perhaps the ability to complete a series of quests which would allow you to "craft" or "upgrade" an old set. (One of the coolest things I saw in Fang was a 4x elixir user in Shadow gear. Made me really miss those old looks!)

Thanks again for such a righteous post and for taking time to consider my recommendation.