I'll add a different perspective on the positionals:

They actually make the job easier. MNK main challenge to me before EW was doing your rotation correctly and not them being positionals themselves. Which is itself not an issue on all other melee jobs because they have very linear and short combos, but MNK's rotation was not only non-linear, but very long. 18 GCDs, 4 different 1-2-3's that you had to perform in a specific order was not super easy to remember and perform correctly on actual fights, to put it mildly. But what helped was the positional requirements, they not only gave the job something to do between CDs and fit within the fantasy of being a pugilist/monk, but that dance, that rhythm itself helped with remembering where you were on that massive rotation, specially when solving mechanics or dodging AoEs. It was kinda of a mnemonic device. Now that positionals are gone, you just camp the flank for almost half of your rotation - since that is the most efficient way to play him, and I was getting lost a non insignificant amount of times because of it. If positionals are seriously off the table, could we get job gauge indicators for like everything? Having to search by buff bars for things like Disciplined Fists or Leaden Fist (both orange icons) among the current form I'm at, Riddle of Fire/Wind and potentially even Earth and 2 (!) different Brotherhood icons (both orange icons as well) alongside any party buff on a job with sub 2s GCD makes finding out which next button I should press in case I forget way harder than it needs to - if Ninja can get an entire UI element for a 7060s attack speed buff, the 15s Disciplined Fists, Leaden Fists and maybe even the form I'm current at (the latter for flavor mostly) can get it too.

Beyond that I agree with everything said here. The job's progression is super static. You don't unlock anything that you'd be interacting consistently with after level 60. SSS and Anatman has very niche and super limited usages and everything else is damage boosts, extra stacks, long CD buffs (of which only 1 isn't a simple damage boost, but it's also on a 2min CD) and ability replacements/upgrades. The gameplay itself is also super static by the almost complete removal of oGCDs attacks and positionals. My suggestion here (alongside bringing all positionals back) is to use those lvl 80+ skills that right now exists simply to replace existing MBs, as oGCDs on a 60s CD that opens up each Nadi; it gives us oGCDs to use every once in a while (but not too much, as I assume that' something SE doesn't want to give us), it gives them interactions with the rest of our kit so they are not simply extra damage buttons, said interactions are new so the job/mechanical progression isn't as static AND it give us tools to use the big Blitz in the opener rather than having to wait for like 50s to do so. Oh, and maybe a 10s CD reduction on Perfect Balance.