To play devils advocate, I'd argue a few points from a different view.

1. Yeah, it is harder to argue with older players. Partly because many folks have a lot of experience with the game and with these points. not the first time they've come up. Worth talking about, but you won't find everyone agreeing.

2. Part of the mechanics driving the game are exactly the things you think are bad. How favor drives money and access. How storage affects everything. The need for more vendors. The need to interact with players to get more done.

3. Inventory and Fame can be rough at any level It's one of the things that keeps people doing stuff. I just came back a few weeks ago. I'm running around like crazy to get the storage set up in the casino because I need more room for tradeskills.

4. The game isn't finished, and 2 people is reality. The game may take a decade to complete. At the same time, it's very playable. There are some other games I've looked forward to in the past couple of years that have millions to spend and dozens of programmers....and are dead and will never be played. Looking at the landscape of failed MMORPG's , I'm satisfied with what two people are doing.

5. Animal forms weren't even supposed to be a thing. We just pushed for the devs to make the fun curses into permanent ways to play. They were not designed to make them playable, although they get better over time. Animals and Fairies aren't intended to be easy for new people.

ymmv