Luckily for players, resets like this don't happen often. This rare event gives the Devs a number of opportunities aside from addressing bugs and regenerating the world. Here are some of my thoughts.
- As mentioned elsewhere, someone wanted to have rivers designated as a different kind of water, producing a different kind of fish. Here is an excellent opportunity to do this; even if there's no functional difference yet, fish can later be made to behave properly.
- Gather statistics. For once in a great while, everybody will be a newb. Now is an extremely rare opportunity to see how people go through the crucial first-10k-LP-phase. I suggest having the server log belief sliders, what skills are selected and in what order, and LP earning actions. Is everybody making clay pots? Is nobody fishing? You won't have information like this until the next time you reset.
- Reset again: After the initial shock of the reset, nobody will have any significant investment in the world. If some issue arises a week or two after the reset, it would be much better to reset immediately than after eight months.
- Change the starting goods: If you change what goods starting characters get in the middle of a regular game, then everybody makes new characters and gives the new stuff to the old chars. It's a mess of alts. This is a slightly cleaner time to fix that. I believe that there is already a thread about that.