Crafting is always better: It is, because the first time you kill Arthas Leoric, you're level 7 or 8, but instead of moving on, you play that area over again until you can craft gear for level 11-12. drops from champions were better than the stuff I crafted when the levels matched (Character level 4 drops were on par with character level 4 crafts). Anyone can use armor: Torchlight did the same thing and for some reason people think it was AWESOME. Also, just because anyone can use it, doesn't mean anyone should use it.
Groups: I played with friends (likely the same group I'll still be with on inferno difficulty) the whole time, so we did work together, and we did trade loot around. I wouldn't expect anything from public games, either.
Boss: I saw him get snared, but he was immune to all my stuns/blinds. Never saw him stunned once, in any fight.
Skills are crap: I tried to play with everything a bit; the only ones that struck me as sub-par were the un-runed charged bolt wizard spell, and the un-runed staff charge on the monk. I could see the staff charge being useful later, to free someone from a swarm on higher difficulties, or whatnot. Everything else I did manage to find a useful role for.