The simple answer to me is that any Halo MMO you conceived *now* would be a whole lot better. 343i has a lot more control and while people may take issue with art or story direction, the universe is a lot more consistent; that consistency didn't exist the entire time this MMO was being prototyped. I understand the desire for an MMO "hero" art style, but I can't imagine 343 biting on that front now, especially not the half-naked witches.

The other main advantage of making such a game now? World of WarCraft isn't the hot new thing; basically it seems like the issues you mention are a pretty direct consequence of "we have to do whatever WoW's doing in a sci-fi setting", and Halo was the property they saw as easies to throw at it. Halo isn't as big as it once was, and in this regard I think that's a good thing; it'd be less prone to cash-ins.

With that said, in the back of my mind I do have the slight trepidation imagining some MS execs saying "free to play MOBAs are big now, make a Halo one" because an action RTS/MOBA is another genre that Halo doesn't naturally graft to as easily, but we'll take it as it comes.

I did notice in this Gamasutra article about the news of the game they asked Claude to "interpret" leaked images, and he basically responds with a "fuck if I know, that's a Halo ring though" response :)