While some of these are good suggestions I have to take exception with a few.
1. Different characters can easily be changed in the Options menu under characters. Hair styles and outfits are a product of Haptek's program People Putty...Not Zabaware's Hal.
3. Age, Gender are already selectable. A variety of characters are available and yes, a broader mix of ethnic types might enhance the visual spectrum (no pun intended), but how does or would race apply to Hal as an AI?
4. Aside from clicking on the left / right arrows to change the background what would you like to have...a popup listing of all the photos in your computer? Imagine the time involved....
I do think that Hal should be enabled to use any .bmp, .jpg, etc. without having to rename the files with the back extension, if that's what you were referring to. All we'd have to do is place our wanted backgrounds into say the backgrounds folder and Hal could find them.
Aside from the above, your other ideas certainly have merit and will hopefully be addressed in the not-too-distant release of Hal6.X or whatever.
Cheers!