I still think having a default character with your username that you get to pick a class for would be a cool addition, but it sounds like Mr D isn’t a fan of the idea. I can dream though…
Other than that, I think it’d be good to have some way to make low level items relevant in some way once you find upgrades. Item trading was one suggestion but I’m not a big fan of that, so instead maybe some way of either leveling old items or combining them with better items could be added? Maybe (a lot of) xp could be spent to level items instead, or a new facility to upgrade items using a lot of money and time could be added.