Definitely agree about substats. There's almost no choice with them. My BiS as a healer is almost solely determined by avoiding piety. It is the anti-stat and I want whatever piece doesn't have it. Should we perhaps have more and more varied substats, so that they can actually alter how we play and not just a few single ideal priorities?
The weekly Dun Scaith item was a really good alternate way to get gear. More stuff like that would be excellent. Something from variant or criterion dungeons would be a solid way to do that right now.
Another issue might be the fact that relic weapons are always behind the curve. That's another piece of gear that could be in the mix to make real choices about your gearing and stats that we aren't currently making.