Obviously we want different things from this game, while some of the aspects you mention are common desires for the both of us.
NPCs, transportation possibilities and dynamic water, as I also mentioned, is going to be great, when it´s implemented in 2020-something. (Just kidding).
But as animals, dangerous and not, are already a part of the game, I really can´t imagine that more angry predators and/or monster-like creatures who wants to hunt you down could be the most time consuming thing to implement. It´s only a matter of priorities, and therefore it´s a shame that the dev team isn´t bigger.
I love that building and landscaping are time consuming things and it should stay that way in survival mode. There should be a creative mode, where you have the options to fly, chop down trees in one hit and possibly have an unlimited, pre stocked inventory, for those who prefer that, but these two game types shouldn´t be mixed, because I consider both to be ruining the other game type.
This may be the future of RW, but a very distant future in that case.