Should they remove positionals at this point?

[Tint]

No comment on SAM, but NIN has always had a positional at the end of their combo and for trick attack. SAM is the only case of an ability not having a positional, then suddenly getting one.

Yes, Sneak- and Trick Attack always had positionals. But the other positionals were added with the release of Heavensward, originallay NINs combos didn't had them.

Sadly it's not stated in detail in the 3.0 patchnotes, but they were talking about it in a Liveletter:

Furthermore, we have added positioning to several weapon skills. Current ninja doesn't have much positioning and was able to attack from any direction freely, so we included positioning for some.