I agree that working on the world isn't a priority right now, but perhaps some issues can be tackled earlier so that the game is more... playable.
What I feel is the issue is that you can't really play the game "straight". Like, pick any character and just play. The beginning is fine, but you're on the clock to get some things I feel are a must. Right now I'm in the third shard dungeon with 12 level troll. With earth shard, invisibility and monk's disarm I manage to take care of giants. (by the way, they don't attack me when I disarm them while invisible) If I played something other than troll, or didn't have invisibility, or didn't have disarm, I'd probably be already dead.
The thing is, as soon as you hit around level 10, the levels are quickly becoming death traps with troll brutes, ogre lords and giants everywhere. If you haven't found good enough gear to deal with them, you won't survive. And if you go somewhere else, well... it scales with your level, so you're still dead. Nowhere to go, nowhere to train, unless you just grind world map encounters I suppose.
So, my troll monk/barbarian/fighter/commoner is fine (sort of ;)). A halfling tinker, on the other hand...
Another problem is that new creatures sometimes spawn right next to you. Maybe it needs a separate bug report...