Hard Mode

Thoughts on adding hard mode to zone exploration and/or story missions for increased rewards? Would be similar to GW1 hard mode with enemies having increased health pools, higher levels, and doing more damage...

Wish they did, unfortunately they won't.

Basically it would split population on a map further, and ANet doesn't really earn anything from working on old content, compared to making new content. (Basically, for hard mode, do HoT, or self challenge yourself to no armor, or only white gear etc).

Increase reward? The pve and wvw have no reward systems in this game. Increasing a non existent reward system won't change anything. Everything you did in GW1's pve had rare things for you to acquire. With HM, it increased the chances of getting these items. What will increase in GW2 when all you're getting is useless chests with junk that you salvage as soon as its in your inventory? There's no point of adding difficulty to pve, the game is just too shallow and barebones for challenging content.