Just want to point out that the #1 and #4 have been brought up to Joe before, and they are things that most of the staff wants fixed as well. Part of the issue with the forum style is that there's no longer a graphic artist around to help with these (which you may have noticed when the old styles never got updated), but otherwise I know I want these addressed as well. If it's of any help, there are software extensions you can use to use a custom style if you'd prefer, or otherwise switch to the default "Happy Style" if the green and black style are too straining on the eyes. No real excuse for the silly subforum drop-down menu other than "Joe hasn't gotten to it."
As for #2, the old style visitor messages are a forum software thing and as far as I know there isn't a way to change that unless some weird extension exists for that, so if you're not a fan of XenForo's style you'll probably just have to get used to it. If #3 is referring to the smilies that used to be in place to post Pokemon sprites, those are gone but you can still post sprites using the image URL using the dex page for the Pokemon (see the button next to the smiley when making your post).
Both the old and new ones if you have either preference. I know this isn't a satisfying answer for everything you mentioned but you're definitely not alone on these issues.