i think its all a good thing

I find it appropriate too. Just saying.. but 17k is a lot of gold and I would guess it's more like level 20-30.
With all three characters I got to lvl 15 with in the beta, I ended up having 4k each on them and that's when crafting all my gear and only really buying the extra bag space.

@OP: I understand why you want more bag space, but I don't think it's reasonable to have more by default. And I don't think you should be able to pick up every little thing you find without running out of bag space. I did woodworking, clothing and blacksmithing. Each time I returned to a town I did my craftings, extracted mats, sold stuff etc to easen up on bag space and stored left overs in the bank. I really don't see how you run out of bag space if you actually use the mats you find and store the left overs, unless ofc you never get rid of it.. don't forget that materials stack up to 100 (I think).

Yeah, to 100 at least for Iron Ore. I assume it would be for the rest of the mats as well, but I didn't accumulate any other materials above that number.

You are not in the minority OP. I was level 14 in the beta, had full 40/40 bank space slots filled and was getting full bags ever 2 minor quest chains.It was rather annoying , not to mention a waste of gold to teleport back every 20-25 min to an area with a bank /crafting stations to salvage items(which i found more profitable than selling to vendors) and the dump things in my bank. Ofc i plan to level up all crafts when the game goes live and i have a knack of looting every barrel etc in sight. A guild wars 2 collectible system with the option to salvage everywhere would be great. Its one of my biggest gripes with the game. Its like they have taken the inevntory /saluaging system a step backwards.And worse is the fact that there isnt an auction house and established trading guilds wont be around at launch. So it will only make matters worse.