last night I also thought of time to make a wishlist thread in connection with the new WED , as its 75% state is probably a stage where it has meaning.

I fully agree with the statements above.

to keep up with other engines' toolset, an advanced terrain system (lod, streaming areas) with some vegetation (and other object) placement functionalities is needed today, in basic editions too, to help fast placement with auto alignment etc. and some optimization afterwards e.g. by mesh merging of models assigned as grass (probably easier to utilize than instancing).

I expect a more integrated editor with much more visual editing possibilities, for model material and shader settings, particle effects, gui, navmesh pathfinder, beside keeping the good old properties (fast object prototyping by blocks, templates for beginners in a few genres like rpg and shooter). and an easy editor plugin system.

yes, and an advanced shader system that smoothly works together is also a must. writing your own optimized shader framework is a bit overloading.