I'm just going to provide a little counterpoint and expand on some things, because there is a lot that the game does well.
GW2 is definitely very different from GW1, but that's because they made a definitive choice in the style of game they were making. GW2 is much more like WOW in terms of MMORPG structure than GW1, so that's inherent.
Monster Respawns
I won't deny that they respawn fast, but unless I've actually stopped to do something, I've never really had a problem with monsters respawning on me. Not until after I've finished a battle anyway. Either way, there's really not much to be gained by clearing an area - killing monsters generally gives very little experience. The bulk of your experience comes from completing tasks such as personal story chapters, events, renown hearts, etc. Seriously, just entering an area you've never entered before will give you more experience than killing a monster. Which is good, because the game rewards you more for engaging in the world rather than sitting there and mindlessly hacking away at spawn after spawn.
Events
This is actually two separate things, and I'm not sure where you're distinguishing them. Renown Hearts are an area of the map that will have several tasks that need to be done to help the residents of the area. Yes, these often have objectives such as "throw snowballs with so and so'children," "heard a bunch of dolyaks," etc, but the idea is that not everyone needs you to kill monsters to help them, especially in the really low level areas. If you're helping a farmer, then watering her crops or feeding her cows actually will help her (those are, no joke, two of the options to help in the first renown heart you encounter as a human). As you progress, then yes, a they do involve a lot more fighting off centaurs or undead, etc. These probably form one of the larger sources of experience, because when you complete them, they give you a nice large chunk of experience, cash and karma as a reward.
The second thing is dynamic events, which are triggered events in the area, and yes, a lot of them do involve defeat x waves of y monsters, but they actually do give to the sense of immersion because the area won't necessarily be the same every time you pass through. Although I will admit some of them occurred with a slightly silly degree of regularity during the beta, but I haven't seen as much of that since launch. As for the foes that just appear - they have to appear somewhere, and they really can't spawn too far away from where the event is actually happening, so I don't really know what solution there is to this problem, if you view it as a problem (I personally don't really care).
Again, I've admitted the gfx can make it super chaotic, but it also doesn't take much to do that because a lot of the gfx have these large particle effects going off. I just did a dungeon with only 5 of us (the limit on dungeon size actually), and the particle effects still got crazy.
Personal Story
Yeah, some of them are small, but I think they're much more pointed than GW1 missions. There's a lot less "wander through the jungle until you reach this special target" because you don't enter the instance until you're pretty much at or near the special target. They leave the random travelling out and get straight to the action. I think this helps make the personal story more engaging, because when you're on your way to the next point, there are actual things to do (dynamic events, renown hearts, etc...) instead of just going through a maze long enough to justify a mission. Again, Mo, the mobs have to spawn somewhere, unless of course, you're saying they're spawning right on top of you, instead of spawning some distance away and running in. Spawning right on top of you is definitely lazy. As for the difficulty, I'll admit, I prefer to stay a couple of levels ahead of my personal story. Even with the scaling system, it makes worlds of difference, especially when you start accumulating traits, etc.
Control
First - they've already had some talk about bringing GW2 to a console (back in January or something), but they said it was not a priority before launch. Other than that, this is really a personal preference thing. Yeah, it was weird to get used to, but I don't really have a problem with the no click-to-move thing. Occasionally the directionality thing will irritate me when I fizzle a skill because I faced the wrong direction when I cast it, but usually it's not a big deal. Movement and positioning plays a much larger role in GW2, as I've elaborated on before.
Radar
Again, a personal preference thing. Yeah, having a hud radar would be helpful, but I don't really feel hindered without it. I just got used to it. The map they do have, though, is super useful. It points out every resource node, every way point, point of interest, vista, skill point, renown heart, and when they occur, dynamic events are pointed out on the map. You can still draw and ping locations on the map too, so it is still useful, just not for finding monsters in your vicinity.
Weapons
Yeah, the limited skills seems like a problem at first, but even after you unlock all of the weapon skills, it can take a while to really learn how to best synergize your weapon skills, slot skills, and profession specific abilities. You won't even finish unlocking skill slots on your bar until you get your elite skill at level 30, and even then you'll probably have a lot of skills left to unlock for use. Another thing you won't get to either until level 20 is traits, which can really adapt your character to a specific style of play and give additional benefits and effects. My current traits allow me to apply more conditions faster to enemies and gives some nice passive buffs to my teammates.
(I'm tired and need to go to bed, but I certainly have more to say on dungeons and crafting at this point...yes, I've done crafting, and it's pretty neat.)
