1 - Retain but make uniform in size. Identifying the author is fairly important. We got rid of the avatars during one redesign and it didn't go well.
2 & 3 - Keep all of these with the possible exception of Community Contributions, although if we ditch that I don't think anyone will actually write user reviews, sadly. If we keep it then the middle tab can go (Top-Rated).
I know Will's been gunning for PL for a while, but I'm very much against removing this. We should however look at the order in which the front page sections are displayed, so that articles and forums are placed above things like PL on mobile. Failing that we could move it to the bottom of the right hand column, because it's a mix of sales and community, so it could fit in the community column without looking too out-of-place.
4 - That forum display idea looks good.
5 - 'focus to the front page again on what we're about'. Left column - sales. Middle column - articles. Right column - community. Those three pillars *are* what we're about.