I do not find the trade channel, or a fair barely noone knows about or can attend, appropriate replacements for an AH. Not everyone plays at peak times or wants to be on discord. I personally will not shout for hours for a no response on a item so for a person like me the trade channel does nothing. Also I work on sundays. Instead even if it a very good item, if it not for my class it going to a npc. Don't talk to me about it being interactive if your exchanging posts on a discord that is not even in the game and not all players have access to. I should not have to have a discord or play on sunday to appropriately play the game.
I very much realise that you really want an AH. We are very aware of the argumentation in favour of an AH, and you are not the only one wanting an AH.
If the majority of players wanted an AH, we would probably have a different discussion about it. But this one of those case like some other subjects, where the community itself is divided with different opinions and arguments, all that are valid.
No matter how much you want an AH, you will not have an AH (for now). First because we are still not decided whether it is the path we want to take for the development of the game and second, and most importantly because even if we were, the state of trading come after many other aspects of the game we need to develop and improve first.
So, as you will not get an AH anytime soon anyway, I've been working on solutions to help out players and ease out the situation for them. The Trade channel is something I've personaly requested, aswell as the Discord Trade channel, and the organisation of the Trade Fair. All of that are my initiatives to ease a situation that is painful for some players and that will not be resolved anytime soon for the reasons I explained.
Now it's up to you to take advantage of that or not. There is players that are trading, enjoying trading, doing it very well and getting tons of gold. So, it is not impossible. I understand it may not be your thing. It's not mine either. But that's all what we got for now, and for sometimes.
I try to help out here