I'm not going to lie, your first thought confuses me.
To your 2nd thought, there is nothing slippery about it, it's for those moments when you don't have a tank to hold the mob in place for you. 20+ less potency is a big difference to not want it.
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It there was an attack which got increased potency from the front, how would a new player know that in dungeons they were not suppose to attack from the front.
It has been sometime, I believe that was around the potency loss for the flank only Monk rotation. Now that was also before the buff to Twin Snakes' duration, and it was used to make sure you did lose TS as well. However I find similarity, in the situation, which might cause Monks to go back to a single position rotation for the sake of simplicity.
If you're new to the game and never bother to read the description of the skills then that's your problem. You will learn.
160 potency from the front VS 180 from the flank - If that's seriously a tough decision for you to call, then playing a game optimally would be the least of your worries.
I've had new player drgs not use their flank directional for the damage boost because it didn't combo to anything and the intial damage was "low" and I've seen mnk that currently don't bother with directional be cause its too much work for the dps gain. So yes I believe you would end up with mnk that only attacks frontal. Which corresponds to the points being brought up, new monks would think it was perfectly ok with them attacking from the front, and just like when you try to nicely educate one of these players they will throw a fit for playing the job the way they want to.
It is not always as simple as, X is more than Y. There is s great deal of nuance to optimizing. And for example say this is a players first game like this. They are not use to optimizing, and the idea of rotation is completely foregion to them. But whatever it's easy to spot that you're the sort who is going to deflect any differing opinions, if not out right ignore them.
Starting from level 1, by the time you even get to party with other players, you should know how to use your skills by then. It's not complicated.