I must say that there’s a lot of truth in all you’re saying. But I have several quick remarks.
I guess, it would be easier / correct to increase base character’s movement speed than to make this modifier basic for every boots 
. Also I heard that devs have some plans to decrease location sizes (not sure about this). At the same time, I personally don’t like the idea of “running through” all enemies straight to the target. Because of that the whole locations seem wasted and needless. Though I agree that their current design / mechanics is not perfect, I believe it’s a matter of time.
- Current functionality is not finished. Event this one is added not so long ago. I’m sure we’ll some improvements in the future
. - Same as 1st, but I just wished to say that there are several discussions about that.
- If I’m not wrong, the material stash is account-shared, unless you play Solo mode
.
In my opinion “action” itself is based on the number of player… hmm… actions per time period. Most existing skills have no cooldown or have something between 3-10 seconds. So, on average, with 4 non base attack skills on the panel, players are able to act 1 time every 1-2.5 seconds, or make a 2-3 sec skill combo once every 4-10 seconds (movement excluded). I’m pretty sure it’s quite fast gameplay (when you get full panel, of course), and I’ve seen some posts that the game is HARD (I’m not judging, just stating). I mean, I just don’t know why you may need this 
. Even if you get all skills on the panel, you won’t be able to use them all, because every skill has its cast time. And having them all just in case… in all cases… emmmmmm… it seems… not… right .
It will be reworked. Ice Ward also. And some other skills .