To answer your question - Great Lakes is much better than it was a month ago. Most of the guilds that clearly speedhack have moved on. Still a couple lingering around but nothing like it was before. There are a few large guilds that will provide some good field fights. TDR/JW, BC, PWNT, XV - the fights are always interesting and there are relatively few speedhackers/d-bags in the guilds mentioned above.
There are enough crafters so that there is always a good selection of items to buy in Luna, but not too many that you can't sell your good gear and make a good profit.
I've played several shards and I always come back to Great Lakes.
There are openings for housing, but you won't find an 18x18 or a tower plot.
The only unfortunate part about great lakes is the forums. Lately, all people seem to post is crap about their real lives, which no one really cares about except for maybe 2 or 3 people (those people also account for 90% of the posts). Maybe it's just me, but I have no desire or interest in hearing about your recent move or watching a crappy youtube video. I did, however, enjoy the joke thread...