As much as I complain about the inability to attack or taunt for 10 seconds when Rage drops, I think that the proposed changes would kill it's use for me.
I have to say that if the proposed changes do go through to live, I doubt my tank will see much action ever again because the -recovery seriously sucks.
I would much rather Rage stays as it is and that Taunt be tweaked to be usable even during a Rage crash (similar to the new defiance ability to use tier 1 powers when mezzed for blasters).
Alternatively, increase the Gauntlet % and make it constantly firing at surrounding enemies regardless of character state to make it a worthwhile innate (although I prefer the Taunt tweak myself).
Either way, leave Rage as it is.
As for the Def/Res inequality, it would be nice to see something tweaked but I guess I12 will be when we see the next round of ideas.
