However, I realize that maybe emote spam could be a concern...

Right now the /gpose feature makes your character perform the last emote and expression you do outside of /gpose in a loop.

So another option would be to expand /gpose to include battle actions and abilities. So if I'm in an area, I could run over and perform my battle ability once, then when I enter /gpose my character would perform the ability in a loop. It would be up to me at that point to set up the shot accordingly, but players wouldn't have a plethora of spammable emotes to clutter screens in cities with this option...