I don't think the stamina system was entirely flawed. I think what did the communication in was the constant spamming of 1 key in order to continuously make up the TP.
If they'd just made it so your basic attack spammed itself, I think stamina could have been adjusted to make combat a lot more comfortable. It also served as a visual to show you were at least doing something. Now with no auto-attack button I have to blindly trust that something is happening even if the server is bogged down.