I wouldn't mind sprint having no cooldown in cities. If I don't feel like going slow, I'll switch to Bard or Dancer for Peloton but not everyone has that option.

I support the idea of an exclusion zone around npcs and things like summoning bells.

As to proposal 3, I think the OP maybe has mistaken how the Aetherytes in cities work; once you are in a city, you don't need to go to the main one again to get around.