Not getting rid of botters & goldesellers entirely and making legit players suffer is a lose-lose situation, we need a win-win situation.
After trying to create a new character we could first have to go through the history of ToS in the eyes of some important figures. This would be really fun since we get to role-play important figures and roam the settings with them. We would have to complete a lot of task to progress, it’s highly based on exploration, solving puzzles and finding hidden things so it’s non linear. It also would relate to where we start and why we are there when we finish. The way this could be repeatable is by giving us permanent benefits when we start playing our real characters (No restrictions to dungeons, trading, etc) 50hrs for players who know exactly where to go and what to do, 100 to 150hrs blind. Players can bypass this by paying a good amount of cash, or it could work with anyone being able to bypass it but being restricted or severely limited to trading & market (Like we’re now) until they complete it.
Few will put in the time and effort just to get banned. With this we actually beat botters without punishing ourselves.
This can also be done with having to earn trading, dungeons, and the like by completing collections and the adventure journal. The further we get in the game the less restrictions we have until we have none. Later in the games life the truly dedicated goldsellers could buy built accounts from people who quit, but for now this can prevent botters.
The other alternative people have recommended is a subscription exclusive server that has no penalties or restrictions for anything and gets updates a week sooner.