the auction house concept was a fantastic, original idea
I could be seriously wrong, but I don't think XI was the first to implement an AH.

As for AH, you could still have it and market wards with my idea. You could even overlay AH onto it, and have a "Buy it Now" feature for an added fee, thus making bidding cheaper and more viable. I'm not arguing for/against AH here. I just think that the wards could be an awesome thing if they did it right.

It's not "adding more coats of paint". It's doing away with whats wrong (crowded NPCs standing in a ward) and reshaping it into something that makes sense.