As much as I'd love to see a major graphical overhaul I will have to disagree in this instance. The things you suggest would most likely require a complete remaking of every model and animation currently present and generate man months of work. We did get a small update with the high detail, fully uncompressed textures, but other than that I don't really think we could hope for more than some optimization and possibly some shader effects or similar.
The real focus should be put on usability and polish. We really could do with quite a few changes to the chat system itself. New modes of availability/visibility of users, a more clear way of looking through your online friends and ongoing conversations, the prospect of custom made chat rooms to keep a multi user chat without entering a room etc etc. It's all been mentioned before, but not given enough priority.
I hate to sound like a naysayer, but an update of that magnitude seems very far off and would be ill timed considering the current state of this, still young, community.
Just my thoughts on the matter, feel free to bash away.