1. Just a few days ago, the dev team said they are looking into it to bring monsters back which follow you around.
2. We are getting player housing, so no point complaining about that.
3. Grand company always makes me feel at home, I see no problem with players having the option to choose.
Think about real life: the place most people call "home" is not where they were born. It's just where they decided to move to because they like it better there, because they have a better wage there, etc.
4. I like the NPC dialouges. Especially the ones you are complaining about the most - the class quests.
At first I was just this strange weakling with MAYBE! some potential.
But from quest to quest their tone changed, and they said stuff like "only you can help him!" and so on.
So no, I wouldn't want it to change.
It makes the world so much more engaging to me, because I don't want to be treated as a hero for doing nothing but beating up some thieves or rats.