First of all, buffing, farming merits, protecting gate are actually done by different players. I can testify for it. =)
In my guild there are at least 5-6 players working on our castle side. I guess your experience is different, i dont know your situation but maybe think to merge with an other guild or recruit low lv chars if you wonna try a sw run by many players with different roles.
Ofc is largely possibile to play it with small guilds. Among all the sw flaws it surprice me how many different ways it can be enjoyed. There are even guilds with newbies who just fight with cata and rams cause they will be killed on sight by guards or middle ballons. Rom sw has got a certain variability that is often understimated.
More importantly, pvp does keep ppl in the game. Sw is very effective to keep players log every day. I was in many guilds, and the moment sw started to be ignored by members is the moment those guilds started to fall apart.
So i really think SW are a special place where a guild can work entirely as at team. Where even the newbies can determine the win by working hard. Meaningless hard work when we have to face point droppers ofc, no time wasted but no fun.
I think is reasonable asking for changes, but i think is even more reasonable asking for weighted suggestions. Honestly i prefer to play sw for 10 more years in this beta mode instead of some sw proposed here.