Were we in the right to kick?

[Cynfael]

at least care about doing as much damage as possible.

You mean that they care about doing as much damage as possible to the single mob that they are focusing on, regardless of whether or not the sudden knockback will risk interrupting other players' casts or push the target out of range of any AoEs that happen to be firing at that moment.

Random knockback is incredibly inefficient and aggravating on a road-rage level. There is no argument that justifies a knockback skill's use in a rotation except on enemies that are immune to it.