@relmatos

1- A half a year is way too long. I was part of a guild with an inactive leader and guess what happened, after a couple months everyone left. 30 days seems just right to me.
2- In a way the GL doed decide this, it goes to the next ranked person. Typically that is either a CO-GL or a high ranking officer. Seems pretty solid to me.
3- The problem in they aren't in game, if they were then there'd be no problem. This whole process comes from a GL that isn't able to function as the GL due to not being there.
4- There's an even bigger problem with just building a new guild. The guild system itself. The Cata guild system is designed to where once you are invested in a guild you lose quite a bit by leaving it. Sure, you could build up everything all over again, but how many people want to go through that repeatedly?

A responsible GL will pass lead to someone trusted if they are going to be gone for an extended period of time. If a GL doesn't do that then there is something wrong and this system seems to be the best solution as far as Blizz is concerned, and I have to say it looks like it's a good one. And as the article said, if you are an active GL you have nothing to worry about.