Honestly yeah, It's pretty annoying to be locked out of a name you want because someone took it and then hasn't touched the game since 2.0 launch. Names have always been important when I make characters so I can understand the OP to an extent.

But personally I've almost only had this issue when I was doing gimmick or cosplay characters, all of my other names have been unique enough to not be taken.

I can't speak for other peoples naming choices, but I feel like there's enough flexibility in the first and last name system for people to come up with good combos.
But I wouldn't mind at all if they put a system in place for people to request unused names. I would suggest something like; an account not logging in or not having a sub for maybe 6 or so months could justify the names being opened up upon request. It would have to be account log in checks cause there's plenty of people with alts and I think it would be a bit silly to expect them to log into EACH alt just to keep their names. And it would have to be a pretty long stretch of time to account for people just leaving between major patches, raid tiers and expansions.

But either way, people will be upset and annoyed no matter what changes. Someone who cares about their name could lose it because they couldn't play, and someone who wants a specific name can't have it because someone with no plans on ever playing has it locked away.
It sucks, but there's no real easy fix, and sometimes you'll just have to accept you need to try finding a clever work around to find a name you enjoy