I'm loving this mode. Hello sense of danger. You have to think about a lot of little things you normally take for granted. I've come so close to death in combat, almost drowning, running through zones too casually and almost into red cons on accident, LDing, etc. I'm not racing to 65, just playing up a char; no twinking/gifts/botting, 1 char only.
1) Add dead HC characters, on the same account, as selectable for a House Trophy.
2) XP and skill gain rate so out of whack as mentioned - Being able to change XP rate down would be nice, but XP locking every 2-4 levels to train skills is a workaround. Maybe set XP bonus to 0 by default and let HC chars summon no drop XP pots. I dunno, something, but I understand it might not be important fix and the workaround is okay for now.