I like Hong. I wish for a chance to game with Hong.
As a player, I like Rope Trick the way it is. As a DM, I accept Rope Trick as part of the arsenal of things the players do.
Look, if they feel they need to waste a precious 2nd level spell slot and at least five feet of rope for a safe encampment, then they're probably fighting something dangerous or they're afraid to sleep outdoors, which only means I've been doing my job.
In the last campaign where it was an issue, my Sorcerer cast Rope Trick pretty much every day. That was one less Cat's Grace he had to cast on the archer. That was five feet of rope he used up. That means all the extradminsional equipment (Bags of Holding, Quivers of Ehlonna, etc) no longer functioned in the Rope Trick.
All to get 8 safe hours of sleep. And it wasn't totally safe. Dispels and bonfires could still wreck his world. Any decent bad guy can detect the invisible opening to a Rope Trick fairly easily or he isn't a bad guy. If he or one of his myriad of minions has Spellcraft, he's going to know it's a Rope Trick. So what happens? We get up, we get new spells, we start climbing out of the rope area and the invisible poison-wielding rogues jump us. Oh yeah, coming down the rope one character at a time with no supporting fire made the monk wince in fear. And even if you somehow get all of you out of the Rope Trick in time to save the first man out the gate, you're still walking out of the bedroom without brushing your teeth and sucking down a fireball!
Rope Trick isn't broken. DMs who make up cheesy ethereal herpes rules are broken. If you don't like a spell, ban it up front so you don't screw the Sorcerer out of a precious slot or screw the Wizard out of money.
Greg