Some good Ideas fer sure! Although I'm not sure that enabling people to jump to 70, and others who work at it is a good idea. Would you want a total Noob, who you think knows how to play, join your party in a critical role, just to get the whole party wiped!
If there was a measure of their experience that you could gage then fine. If not it would create a lot of frustration and anger.

As I see it whats really missing on the Shack is Battlegrounds and Honor! I Think if the two servers (The Den & Shack) were linked just like Retail WOW in that people from many different Servers are able to join a BG, and play on team Raids in Warsong Gulch, AB, and AV, Etc...
I would think this should be not too difficult to do since Retail WOW already has this feature built in already.
It would really fill in a hole that turns some people off to the Shack. It would also create a bridge to the folks who play on the different servers.
The Shack needs the ability to earn Honor and it's associated Gear!