1) I think that adding things such as basin back to the daily stuff is superfluous because back when we had to do 3 dungeons, doing basin as an automatic go to really meant you only needed to do 2. In other words, if you intended to do basin as a daily, it's the same as removing it from the dailies and making the requirement 2 dungeons. I'd only see it as a good thing if it will populate basin and maybe people will kill field bosses which will put more evo stones back onto the market. The fact that things like solo dungeons are no longer a part of daily rotations is healthy for the game in my opinion. Again, if you intended to do solo dungeons in the first place, you should be doing them anyway whether it be for the gold or the upgrade materials. Making people do dungeons in f8 is wonderful for new players or alts. I've had a much easier time finding parties for things like HH, which previously was a dead dungeon. Now, more people are doing party dungeons AND are less inclined to kick people. I mean, A3+ for SSM, HH, heck even up to ST? Are you serious? But with my R3 I can find parties without getting kicked. It's just nice. I would however, agree that adding PvP back would be healthy as well since it would promote more players to do that. Most people don't intend on doing PvP, but just maybe completing a quest might make them try it out.
2) We have 2 modes regardless of what you call them. easy, normal, whatever. I personally like doing mechanics and it would be terribly boring if every dungeon became a punching bag. That being said, I don't see why they removed ALL hard modes. If dungeons were simplified to one mode, why reduce their gold cost under the context that it's to prepare us for hard mode? Where? I certainly don't see hard mode ST on the list. I liked RT mechs, but now no one has to go into SS anymore and the boss hardly does any damage when you are supposed to wipe. Changing the dungeons so that they present a challenge is good for players since it adds to the game. I'm not saying I agree with making it super hard, but something like TSM did it right. The person that gets the curse mark, if it isn't done correctly will die. It doesn't punish EVERYONE with an instant death, but it also shows the players that are learning that something around that part of mechanics needs to be worked on for later runs. It really is a good example of practice for hard mode. The other part about no drops in lower dungeons is wack though. That needs to be addressed.
3)I agree
4) Moon refuge is made in a way that a player will complete Zavana's zeal about 2 times before finishing the actual quest. This way, players can trade for about 2 boxes at the merchant which rewards buds, exp charms, and maybe some gold coins (worth 5g each). If a player so chooses to, they can grind for all 4 boxes a day. Also, moon buds can be exchanged for some useful items, a personal favorite of mine is the eminence exp charm. Sub HM 14, they're 1mil exp at the cost of 30 buds which is nothing. For new players, refuge not only gets you to HM 15 really quickly, but you can also get some useful equipment. Panda cache village in refuge is also 10 times better for materials than basin. While farming in basin, mobs have a chance to drop a treasure chest (albeit at a decent rate), while in refuge sometimes a raccoon will spawn if you kill a mob. Killing will earn you a treasure chest, but may also go to panda village. I often walk out of panda village with 20+ chests in less time than it takes to run a couple of dungeons. That amount of material is insanely good, and happens WAY more frequently when more people are killing mobs to increase frequency of panda village. Although if too many players are there then people kill each other for more chests....point is, refuge, while time consuming, is still a good place and is not irrelevant.