I too, must agree. You have to carry items around with you if you want to sell aggressively and kill monsters with any efficiency. With the limited time I have to play, I can't be assed to spend time derping about in town.
You can increase the quality of the item again for a higher chance to get more sockets/links, but each use of fusing/jeweller will eat any quality on item. At least that's how I see it, haven't tried yet.
I had heard the same thing yesterday about getting in your car and trying to outrun it, I thought that was like rule #1 never get in your vehicle to outrun a tornado. I guess they are backpedaling on that one these days.
Ive tried hardcore a couple times. While I enjoyed it, I died both times to desync. The game isn't even buggy really. I just get too frustrated when that happens.