Got the itch, I may come back?

Zeppelin8

So, I played the game at launch, levelled my way to 60's where I finally got bored because of content gap between levels. Came back 1,5 years later (I think), game was better, I levelled my way to 80. But there was this thing called pvp levels, where everybody pvping at a place called something ''sands'' and did not level above 24 until they hit pvp level 5. Remember trying pvping in Keshetta to get pvp levels, which was a total zerg fest. I also remember casters owning melees, because melees would run out of stamina while trying to catch casters etc.

Now thinking about all that and lackluster crafting, I still somehow liked the game, I actually liked it a lot because of the art, combat and the atmosphere around different zones.

I remember reading that crafting is now a strong point of the game, how come? Crafting back then was just terrible. What about pvp levels and balancing? What about class diversity and progression? New abilities maybe?  Is mounted combat finally fixed and became something viable? What about zergs and sieges? Healthy population?

I've seen many people claim AoC to be a great and diversed game now , with all different kinds of progression . Is that true?