I figure the logic behind the current system is their wish for active management of these boons rather than fire and forget auras of other games.

And to a certain respect, in sPvP and WvW this can certainly be the case, but I feel PvE isn't quite there yet to justify the current limitation. Especially in older content(dungeons), where stacking remains the go to route for overall efficiency. Though I'm not entirely sure it would solve most of the problems with the current stack meta as many encounters will still continue to punish players from spreading out too much from melee range.

I'm hoping their focus on the new specializations and their development choice to spread base class mechanics throughout the new ones will encourage them to look at core aspects of the combat system and help them refine and revitalize areas which are still in need of support.

A bit off topic, but whenever buff radius is picked up for discussion, it always makes me think back to spirits and their current implementation in-game. Banners cover such a wide radius,even untraited, can be actively mobilized and are able to provide their active and passive benefits without requiring further upkeep other than cooldown.

It just seems like they tried to keep too close to GW1's nature rituals when designing GW2's spirits, rather than reimagine them for this games iteration of combat. Their lack of mobility and health pool worked with GW1 because spirits could be extremely powerful and game changing given their ability to interact with base skill mechanics such as skill cost and recharge, condition duration and output, provide or negate elemental damage, and others even capable of playing with core mechanics like death or resurrection.

GW2 spirits are very modest in comparison and would be better implemented as a passive party auras (aesthetically; nature aura dependent on spirit) while retaining their physical spirit form as part of their active on-skill use. At the very minimum, I feel spirits should be better evaluated for AoE invulnerability to offset their overall lack of mobility. Hopefully this is better tackled in HoT's final implementation, or my condolences go out to the class who ends up receiving spirits as part of their specialization package.