Well said and I agree with most points.
Pre-order purchases actually do not get to play the beta, only pre-purchases do.
Dodging is meaningless in the early areas, but when I was fighting level 14 Ettins I had to use dodge regularly for their power attack or risk being one shot killed.
I've also seen events fail and then followed the chain specific to failing it, which I found to be quite awesome.
All in all I think this is going to be the MMO to beat when it's released, but there's still plenty to be done from Anet before then.