"5) I'm concerned that the line between fighters and tinkers is non-existant, or near enough to gone that there are no reasons to be a fighter over a tinker. Tinkers have whirlwind, I hear. Balance weapon. A full compliment of combat devs."

Fighters still get more combat devs than tinkers though. 125 vs 100, I think. And fighters have several skills that tinkers don't, in addition to being able to spend many more devs on balance. When it comes to combat, a tinker and fighter of the same level are nowhere near the same power.

"2) I think the biggest question here is should all guilds be earning xp at the same rates. This question isn't addressed in the slightest in any of the news posts or replies I've seen, and it seems to be the elephant in the room. If the answer is yes, the way CMS gives out xp should be tweaked to account for that rather than individual guilds being given new skills/spells/gadgets simply to up their earning potential."

I agree. And yes, all guilds should have the same XP earning potential. Since level is the essential factor in resisting spells, not having it that way is quite unbalancing.

"3)I'm not particularly convinced that there needs to be an even number of runes for weapons and armour."

I agree. Though I am convinced that if you are going to revamp a guild knowing how many runes of a certain kind there are is good to know... Especially if your goal is an equal number of runes...

"All in all, these changes seem to have been well-planned, poorly screened, and then atrociously implemented."

I am not sure about well planned... The organic section of the guild was forgotten completely. That very few used it before is an argument FOR devoting some energy to that...