1. Haha, I'm easier to please in terms of bending, but comparatively speaking, I think I agree? The pro-bending matches were interesting to me, but except for the bit a few eps back where Korra makes her footwork breakthrough, they don't grab me in the gut the way the fight scenes outside the ring do. A:TLA still wins in terms of sheer epic, though.

3. I think we won't see any Avatar state until Korra's worked through/at the very least done more work on her spiritual baggage? So far we haven't seen Korra do much spiritual/emotional work yet. (If we count the flashbacks as markers of progress, she's only gone two steps down the road! :P)