These are some very nice suggestions and ideas you have! I agree with a lot of them and I actually didn't really find your post like offensive or anything, It's genuinely good!!
I'm going to reply to some parts of the post, just because I felt the need to say my opinion on these things that you talked about. Very nice post in general! :D
Feral Heart is going down hill. And fast. Everything was fun and fine until the new update came. The changes the new update brought were drastic as it literally swept a lot of people off their feet. It was really unnecessary to change all of the maps and even blatantly get rid of some! Getting rid of some of the most iconic maps was truly not the best decision, many members role-played in these maps. It was easy to get to and it didn't lag like some of the new maps now.
One of the main maps that should have been rid of was Fluorite Plains. This was a huge map and there were so many role-plays based there. Even with all of the members there on a daily basis, it hardly ever lagged until you got to the bridge. The Grounds is really more like a useless waste of space. It's like another Cape of Distant Worlds that only connects to in-game maps. There are also no role-plays that happen there now either which really kills the game too. When you entered Fluorite Plains, pressed f3, and looked around the map, you'd be at awe at all of the role-plays going on. It'd inspire you to join them or even make your own.
Now don't get me wrong, the new maps are great, better even! But if they were connected to the good old Fluorite Plains, in iconic places where you could tell what each map was about (if it was a coast map, forest map, ocean map, etc.) it'd just make everything easier to handle. New players could explore and find hidden places which would make them want to continue playing. Fluorite Plains was a great place to get a grip on role-playing and now that it's gone... well the new map is just too small and holds too many people.
As far as I would usually argue with this, I sadly cannot do that completely! I do believe that a lot of players stopped playing after the update. But to be honest, some of us (like me and many more) just grew up.. We don't play FH that often because we're busy with ''adult'' things in our lives. Most of us attend college or work, or even both. It's the reality. But yeah, I can't say that I DON'T miss old maps. I do, I really do, they were fun to play around and they were BIG! Even if Fluorite Plains was a big and mostly empty map, It was my favorite! And South Pole! I mean, SP was literally EMPTY but yet we all hang out in it, all the time! I do think that maybe these maps could be ''upgraded'' (added a lot of new objects, but not COMPLETELY modified like what happened to Ficho Tunnels).
Now I know this is already long, but a good reviewer always give details! So lets got onto another problem. The registration. I know! I know! So many people have talked about this with complaints and quips about it. But if you've noticed in the past few months (years really) hardly any new players have joined up! But now that there's a delete account process, the registration should be open more often! My suggestion is to have it open four times a month for 4-5 hours. This way you could set up dates and times were registration will be open and people can tell their friends all about it. You won't get complaints about how people wanted to 'join sooner but it took forever for registration to open'. If anyone open's registration and sees that it's closed, you could put a little sign on the bottom showing the next dates that'll open.
This is a really interesting idea to be honest. Not sure how they would be able to do it, or if it's even possible, but it's really nice and less confusing for some; younger gamers, unlike the registration we have now.
Lastly, I promise it's the last thing, we have the animations. I know this was supposed to be a fun, ran around as an animal game, but it's turned into a role-play game and everyone knows it. The animations should be changed to fit the the members needs. I know there are people out there who made their own animations and shared it to the other members. Sadly it's hard for new members to find these animations unless someone shows them links. And there is no 'best animation' to choose. It's a win and loose game really. There could be animations that both species could use and it wouldn't be tedious for the programmers or designers. To make it easier, there could also be added animations instead of completely changing the ones now.
Yep, new animations would be pretty awesome! And I'm pretty sure that It can be done, because as you said, people already create their own animations.