PLD feels underwhelming lately

[BadRNG]

It stands true for pre-endgame as well. Additionally, a lot of people seem to be ignoring the RoH debuff which, though not effective as Path, is a thing that exists. On top of that, the fact that IB is effectively just shield block ondemand and that it more or less just turns a Warrior into a paladin with just shield oath and 25% extra HP for six seconds is also a thing- While doing lower Coils on a Paladin, especially with Echo, if you legitimately need that extra Warrior 25% or 20% reduction your healer is probably a huge mess.

Is this real life? "shield block on demand" is a ridiculously huge asset. A well played warrior can out perform any PLD in any fight with predictable spikes, aka all challenging content in the game. I should probably note that I don't believe this to be a bad thing given how the classes are currently designed, but I just wanted to point out you are massively downplaying something that makes WAR incredibly powerful.

This is a fine tuning issue as there is literally nothing else to complain about between the two classes (in regards to balancing them). I'm far more concerned with the lack of on the go decisions players have to make while playing a Paladin then compared to a Warrior. If SE were to make changes to the classes, then this is what I prefer to be prioritized. It gets far too stale to play Paladin through the fights having only 1 go to combo and predetermined points in time where cooldowns should be burned.

This is my stance too. PLD just doesn't have any complexity or choice in it, and is painfully boring as a result. In many ways 2.1's WAR changes were influenced by PLD's design, moving forward I would love for them to do the reverse and have PLD take some cues from WAR's design and add some much needed complexity. Certain classes will always have a higher skill ceiling or lower floor, but as it stands PLDs are stuck in fetal position to fit in the room. This is the most "underwhelming" aspect of PLD to me.