Nice opening analysis; it's rekindled my interest in QGD.
Queen's gambit Capablanca vs Alekhine
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The most annoying line in the QGD is the exchange variation which leads to a slight advantage for white thanks to the superior pawn structure.
Another annoying line is where white decides to play 4. Bf4 and playes for 0-0-0.
These variations is enough to scare me away from QGD.
Yeah, the exchange is my favorite weapon against the QGD. It's just much harder for black to find an active plan because a black "undermining" idea like white's b2-b4 but instead with ...f5-f4 weakens the kingside too much because ...g5 would probably eventually be needed to play also. But supposedly active piece play will make him ok but it's not straightforward to play.
I am starting to study the queen's gambit seriously and all of it's variations along with games which I plan to post here. I'm starting with the orthodox defense of the QGD. I've used a game which I believe was in the world championship match between capablanca and Alekhine in 1927. Capa played some innocnet moves that allowed black to get in an exchanging manouver. Then Alekhine showed off his endgame skills here to neutralize capa's d file pressure by advancing his queenside majority. He eventually gets a passed c pawn, but the end position is still dead drawn. It's not the most exciting game, but it shows the thematic ideas for black equalizing well. The next game will show white picking a strategy just a little more challenging.