I played RDM too and I didn't mind the whole refresh routine at all, it felt like playing Diner Dash... Outside of exp parties, doing crowd control during Dynamis or low-manning Gods was very satisfying and challenging, but enough about that now.

On the spending SP thing, the direction is quite good I think. SE could learn something from Dragon Age 2, where everytime you level up, you could pick a new skill to learn and these skills are grouped by specializations.

However I think centering the game around Guildleves was wrong to begin with. This puts LIMITS on the variety of missions you get, the kind and number of mobs you kill on these missions, the kind of rewards you get, and even the amount of play time available. And when you limit what a player can do in a game, it will suck. I really think SE should take a step away from developing on the Guildleve idea.