Character screen 'issues'
As someone who does not PvP often I can’t really comment on your first point other than it seems like a nice idea to always show your character as he/she last appeared in game whether that be in PvE or PvP (hey, log out in town clothes, see them on the screen … I like!).
As to the second, here’s a work-around for you. It won’t help with wallpaper or with seeing your feet but if you just want the character part and are using Win7, look for the “Snipping Tool.” A friend told me about it and I have it pinned to my task bar. It turns your whole monitor pale and lets you drag a cropping rectangle around whatever part you want. Snip, save, and you have an image. Great for showing chat moments or balancing out a screenshot that has your character offset or clutter at the edges. I’ve used it to get shots from the character select screen, usually by Snipping a screenshot rather than trying to snip at the right moment as the image moves. Come to think of it, I’m not sure the image does move while in Snip mode … I will have to test.
