The problem with Monk isn't positionals (opinion piece)

[Shurrikhan]

This I disagree with. Meditate is MNK's answer to having no ranged attack so while other DPS are able to hit an enemy from range.

I never said otherwise, only that such doesn't require a button. Choosing to use Meditation can be done as simply as choosing not to use your GCD in any other way. For every half-GCD off the global cooldown, you get a Chakra, with cumulative and retained progress towards the next gain over time spent off the GCD.

they don't really offer much to their respective classes other than mitigation and should be adjusted or removed

So, simply... dps shouldn't have mitigation?

I'm aware but I find the argument of button bloat as a whole to be ridiculous considering that we had more abilities back in Heavensward and were able to function just fine so why the sudden obsession

Except, consolidation has been a hot topic precisely since (and because of) Heavensward. How did you manage to avoid seeing the various threads about Fell Cleave and Inner Beast, Steel Cyclone and Decimate, Enochian, Fire IV, and Blizzard IV, Fang & Claw and Wheeling Thrust, or Aetherflow spenders and Aetherflow, or even Meditation itself? Most of the consolidation we have today is because of complaints made since Heavensward. The topic is neither sudden nor new. Wasteful button design didn't just somehow go unnoticed earlier.

they were niche and don't really help MNK

So, what does "help", then?

Mitigation's a no. Indirect mobility's a no. Reactives are a no. GCD-length variance is a no. So, what finally manages a slot for you?

Is it fluff apm like mindless hit-on-CD oGCDs? Easy potency (despite it having to have merely been siphoned from elsewhere anyways) without zero interactions, like the old Elixir Field and the late-ShB TK? What?