Well many may not agree with me after reading through this whole thread but
I for one actually enjoy this new change.

I have played as DRK main since HW all the way through and have recently come back to ffxiv after a long long break playing GW2 to play ShB
My opinion is only after tasting the first few levels of ShB DRK but I have played HW and SB as DRK vigorously

My issue with the old HW and SB DRK was that it was very boring to play (my opinion ofcourse) as I found that :
HW DRK had only 1 2 3 combo and 1 2 soul eater combo as a real source of attack and the rest would have really long cooldowns
SB brought in the blood gauge but still it wasn't enough attacks to really make it much fun .. for me atleast

ShB has added some nice skills in addition to the attacks we can use not to mention finally getting a combo to our aoe skill

My only issue with the new DRK would be that Darkside is now no longer a active skill on its own but must be paired in with the new attack skills

But I do enjoy the challenge, keeping my mana up while dishing out as much damage and also keeping dark side up is quite fun for me