Are there more tanks playing now?

[Lyth]

The problem is in the central concept. Healers heal. DPS do damage. Both of these are self-explanatory. About the simplest explanation of tanking that I can manage is:
1) Obtain aggro quickly. Retain it. Transfer it smoothly when required.
2) Control the rate of incoming damage through gear and defensive abilities.
3) Position mobs quickly and smoothly. Minimize movement.
4) Maximize your damage output.

Even if you had agreement on what the tenets of tanking are, you'll have a lot of difficulty getting people to agree on how they should be prioritized. The "strength meta" wasn't really about your choice of jewellery. It's about the mindset that you should actively maximize your dps while meeting the requirements of your tanking responsibilities.

The fact that the question of "Do tanks need to dps?" is even on the table in this thread for a class that uses swords as a primary weapon is a reflection of how unintuitive the design of this all is. Here's your foam sword and suit of impervious armor. Go distract that dragon while we beat him up. It's the years of MMO experience which indoctrinate us into thinking that this is "normal".

It's not a question of how much damage you do. It's a question of how much damage you do relative to the rest of the raid. In fights where the OT is essentially another dps, then limit break considerations aside, why not take another dps if you can get away with it? You can spend an entire raid session on OT some days without getting a chance to do something tank-like. If we're not consistently seeing raid content designed for two tanks, then how is an OT supposed to "focus more on their primary role of positioning and controlling enemies and taking and mitigating damage for the team?"

I'm not suggesting that things have taken a change for the worse, because for the most part, it feels about the same as it did before. But you won't produce a shift towards mitigation focused tanking without having equally engaging mechanics and skill-based rewards to match.