I certainly would allow Nimble Guard to be used to stall out a grapple it is a very valid tactic to use. 

So the theme I see here, are the Game Masters want it Quick and Dirty and the players want complete freedom....

Held: The character is flat-footed and may take no non-free
actions except an opposed Athletics check to escape the hold. A
character who becomes held a second time loses this condition
and becomes pinned.

I love having a ton of things to choice through and to be able to shop and its great thing to do before coming to the game table.  At the table though I just don't want to spend hardly any time on it.  I rather players focus on planning the op.  So I guess quick and dirty for me.  Having a good relationship with your group that they will have access to the necessary and cool equipment (unless not having access is plot specific) when they need it solves a lot of problems.  I don't see the point in ruining an adventure if someone should have brought night vision goggles, the adventure was  written with the expectation of them having them, so making sure that they end up in everyone's ruck sack even if they didn't necessarily pick them isn't a bad thing. 
Just a wacky thought I just had but I wouldn't even mind seeing a gear system that sort of works like the wealth system here roll to see if your character had the for site to bring his duct tape. 

The more I think about it I really love GURPS use of skills for combat instead of  a BaB
I

• Spycraft 2.0's grappling feats: FC's Wrestling chain pisses me off.  The 2 tricks are just "pro wrestling" instead of actual wrestling.  Spycraft did it right - Submission chain, Brawling chain, and Wrestling chain.  You can make a wrestler rather then someone who piledrives people (which is almost impossible without them cooperating in setting up the move).

• Varied attack types:  Spycraft 2.0 had the "kick" attack, complete with it's feat chain support (Like).  FC has a Kick chain, but only NPCs can gain Natural Attack: Kick (Do not like).  It's not a problem so much as it is a logical disconnect (and I've actually had GMs not let me use the Kick chain because I didn't possess Natural Attack: Kick - because the RAW didn't support it).  Other systems also have actions in place for things like Pistol Whip and Buttstroke, which I really like (and I can't count the number of times running SC2.0 that I've had someone ask what the rules for pistol whip/buttstroke are).

• Location Injury: The Table of Ouch is a damn good start (though I don't like that your more likely to hit a key location because you do more damage).  What I really like is systems where getting shot in the leg is different (not necessarily better/worse - different) then being shot in the arm.  GURPS has a good one, but it can get to be a little bit "too much" since you have to roll on it for every attack (and subsystems like armour are based on you doing so).  I recognise that this isn't a wishlist thread, but what would move this concept from "merely like" to "love" is if a happy middle ground between the two could be struck.  Something like change the Table of Ouch to a table that determines location you hit and then produces critical injuries from there (in fact that's probably easy enough that I'm going to draft out a houserule like that today).

100% agree about these 3

Rifter #3 Revised Grappling Rules & News Martial Arts
Groundfighting
I love the fact that it is recognized as different from grappling while standing.

D20 - Wealth Mechanic - I love the fact that it almost treats handling money like a skill. It covers all the crazy finicial nonsense in one easy to use mechanic. 

GURPS 4th Ed- Martial Arts-
Perks
I see them as small bonus with more flavor
IE
Ground Guard
You know a body of tactics for use when you and your
opponent are both on the ground. In that situation only, you
get +1 in all Regular or Quick Contests to do with grappling
– pins, chokes, attempts to break free, etc. If your foe knows
Ground Guard, too, your bonuses cancel out. This perk is
named for a fighting position used when lying face-up, commonly
called the “guard,” but encompasses many related
positions and also works when crawling or lying face-down

This may work well as a "proficiency"

I also like how they handled "Styles"
As a collection of Skills & techniques

Things I think Crafty Games does well
Representing complex Skill such as Grappling and Martial arts with Feat Chains
Feat chains are by far some of the best implementations of Mechanics.
IE
Submission Basics- with its Prone Stance (Stance) is a fairly good representation of Gurps Ground Guard perk and addressing a ground fighters stance. 
What is missing is the great transitional abilities you see in Ninjas & Super Spies
With their Body Flip/Throw mechanic if you are successful with it the character that was thrown loses their next attack so you can immediately move into ground fighting.
Some video examples of this transition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVE82gH-v-g&feature=related
While not looking for wants I would like to see a Trip Feat Chain that is representative of this sort of transition.

I've never quite understood the persistence of the "comedy-style brain injury" meme in action films.....

Because the alternative is as you describe.  Honestly is there any easy way to render someone unconscious in Real Life that doesn't have some possibility of horrible side-effects?

Sleeper holds tend to be relatively side-effect free.

I beg to differ, most windpipe choke holds are not pleasant compared to a good old blood flow one.
A poorly executed "sleeper hold" has caused quite a few deaths and I believe most law enforcement agencies do not allow the use of them for that reason.

Again, we view unborn and undead and such as immune to subdual because they don't ever sleep and can't fall unconscious. It sounds like your issues are with the weapons in question being used primarily to knock folks out rather than kill them, which is fine. All that's required is to switch those damage types to lethal.

It's not that. It's the mental image of a 'forged being hit by a big, nasty warhammer (or by dozens of them) while he is leisurely sit, sipping tea while reading the Korranberg Chronicle's morning edition  .

Well if he is sitting their sipping tea then the -4  when coveting to lethal damage won't matter much =)

I agree with the boxed adventures, I guess I want it to be BIG, lets see
I liked:
Golden Voyages a lot (Al Quadim 2nd ed)
Dragon Mountain (also a D&D 2nd ed adventure)
those two stand out to me I am sure their have been plenty of others.

A healthy dose of
Rule 0
pretty much completely covers this topic without the need of new damage types or codes or anything else really
Its why I love table top rpgs SO much more than computer ones. 

Minor aside, this is why I acquired such a high degree of respect for the joint-locking techniques I learned in aikido. A brutally sincere joint lock is not all that different from having a firearm pointed at your torso - resist, and you're gonna get permanent, grisly injury.

I always preferred the chokes of Judo and BJJ safe effective way to put someone to sleep and take control of a situation.  Never felt that Chokes and Joint Locks have been particularly well modeled in any RPG. 

Not sure why light opposes darkness. Darkness is just an area where there is not light. It is usually used metaphorically with good and evil but the reverse of the metaphor is hardly accurate.
 

Think magic, not physics. Darkness is not the absence of light, but a force in its own right.

Sorry, my players tell me the same thing. It is just the way I think.
   But read the glow spell it is werde, it does not create light it makes the player glow and thus creating light. But the darkness spell radiates darkness. Why would they write it that way? I can't fathom it.

Your over thinking this a lot.  consider the light from glow to be magical light as it is the simplest interpretation.
When charting your course through this that first and for most it is a game it is suppose to be fun and thus everything doesn't need too much thought put into them just relax some and enjoy it.

There are 3 human talents in the core book alone that grant feats, so while not common as spinningdice said, it isn't something that goes against any rule.

I stand corrected

I like it, it would be nice to see more talents that contained species feats in them.
The only problem is though don't they end up with one feat too many?
1st level feat
Specialty feat
interesting it certainly fits thematically as a talent over a Specialty.
would it be better served having
"Elf Blood" required instead of given?  For balance reasons.
I have been toying with the idea of a campaign quality that gives everyone on free species feat since they are pretty dang neat.