Any new new in NIN's positional so?

[Adire]

Except NIN did have positionals originally.

They changed it to how it is now pretty quick, though for a while the tooltips reflected the Flanking/Rear requirement. And even the bizarre Sneak Attack from the front XD

I don't think that's correct. Please show me a link with proof that there were more positionals on NIN than sneak/trick attack. I did not start playing the job until after 2.5, so may not recall correctly.

There is no reason for a NIN to use sneak attack over trick attack either. Why it's frontal anyways though, who knows. A ninja shouldn't be attacking anywhere but from behind if being stealthy, much less from the front.

But while trick attack is positional, it in practice allows a NIN to not have to worry much about positioning, because the rear is the only place a NIN needs to focus on. So unless NINs had other positionals from the beginning, your point there is off.