Another part to consider is that they really do take their lore seriously.
I think we might be able to learn to do a complete transformation like Iceheart does.
It's temporary and would be in our control (like she controls Shiva).
They tied up all this lore about the general existence of primals being harmful and that we can't control the stuff bigger than the egi.
Even if we learnt to, it would take crystals to sustain them and they would be harming the realm.
I always thought it'd be cool if the SMN could jump on the primal's back and power it up to at least a reasonable size.
Then it could do special moves.
But SE's solution seems a lot cleaner and bypasses the lore issues, while also having notable precedent in the story (with Iceheart, our fellow Echo user).
To me, making way for the summon is a big part of it.
Even when they added interaction with them, it emphasized that even more because you were still in control but there was only one.
It's a one man party doing huge damage.
Obviously, in an MMO, you can't really do that. And to me, pets can be clunky and interactions with them can add visual clutter as well.
You can't replace the whole party but you can replace yourself. I think that's a good turn and I hope they're developing it like that.
I'm mostly thinking about WoW's Demonology Warlock. It's all based on doing dot and supplementary damage to build up Demonic Fury, then turning into a big Demon.
In that form, it's moves get turned into Demon infused versions of the spells. It's a burn phase and you spend the fury and then go back to building it up.
It has a pet, but the pet just has minor interaction, like our egis. Most of its damage is still auto-attacks, but it builds fury for the master.
I think SMN would be really cool following that design and could have all the things the summons have been known for in the past.
The cinematic nature, the big damage burn and even the character replacing.
You're making way for the power that's clearly bigger than yourself, but your will controls it.
I don't think the character should be doing their own thing while still controlling all that power.
But you also can't have them standing focusing on the summon.
A full transformation is a much more elegant work around.
I'm hoping the only reason there's no form change is because of lore reasons, or just to keep something for the class to grow into.
We could learn it from Iceheart in Heavensward.
