First of all, I’m sorry that I don’t have time to properly answer everything. I also apologize to @awesomerobot for completely forgetting you, you’ve done some good stuff here. I guess that was because lately more often not the design changes seem to have be coming from other devs. That said, I think other users have said pretty much what I’ve though so there’s not that much to add. I will only comment the (short) example of gutter links.
What would have liked to see is something about the original design. Why the gutter links are there in the first place? Why are they presented like they are? What has changed to commanded the change? If there were complaints, what were they? There must be some new data or at least it’s interpretation must have changed. I don’t have access to any of that. That’s also why the discussions become bikesheddy. You can’t challenge the assumptions behind the changes because they are not made visible.
I’m not a design agency submitting work for you/us to vote on. I’d simply like to contribute in what I can and give my experience and input on things were I can. If I had the data, I’d be able to make my own conclusions, possibly gather some additional data or test the ideas. Only after that am I able to share my findings, ideas and designs back. That’s how I work.