I'm not sure how helpful it is for me to contribute to this conversation since I've received an offer from a school that I will accept on my first round of applications, but from what I've heard it is worthwhile to reapply if one thinks their grades aren't prohibitive and has alternatives for both letters of recs and a writing sample. If you can strengthen these latter categories, and your professors aren't sending you "have you thought about law or IT?" signals, it's worth another shot...especially if you can increase the number of schools you apply to significantly over your year off.
The law school feedback is helpful (I had no idea the job market was so bad in law), but the "see the world" stuff doesn't seem all that helpful. I'm sure anyone who is surviving in a phil program somewhere has thought about "seeing the world," and with all due respect, Billy, I'm not sure if you have as much experience in the working world as you might think. Some of us have health problems and disabilities that make those lines of work prohibitive, and many of the jobs you mentioned do not come with adequate benefits if you have a significant disability or dependents. Some of us are in our 30s and 40s, so that sort work may simply not be options for us.
Anyway, if you are middle class (or wealthier), have no dependents, don't need to accomodate significant disabilities, by all means see the world. Otherwise, it would be interesting to see what sort of careers philosophers are suited for other than programming and law. I've heard of philosophers becoming quite happy teaching history, and Philosophy Bytes mentions that many sommeliers studied philosophy. I'm not sure what else philosophers are suited for if law is not an option.
