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

[Shurrikhan]

As I said earlier in the thread, MNK needs an actual rework that connects its systems to one another and for its skills to work together without the niche crap clogging it up by being adjusted with the rework in mind.

Like what, though? What, to your mind, is an example of things "working together"?

Again, you've given half a dozen things you don't want, but I can't recall a single example outside of perhaps turning positionals into Chakra generators that'd "connect" beyond "use oGCD during damage window". Howling Fist, Steel Peak, Elixir Field, etc., are empty apm without a competing use for what advantages them (e.g., TK, as per 4.3 Monk). Hell, having actual choice in what one uses goes a far longer way to make a deep, fulfilling kit than does late-5.x "just hit all the things". Even back in ARR and HW, ToD was only particularly interesting because of Fracture; without Fracture, ToD couldn't align anything at all outside of a high-ping, zero-SkS build, providing the kit with no further choice or considerations beyond what Demolish already provided. (And if having two providers of the gameplay matter is apparently so wasteful that SSS, regardless of potency, must be turned into a simple oGCD or removed....)

Some skills, like One Ilm Punch, Haymaker and Featherfoot, were incredibly limited in scope admittedly so their removal wasn't really that big a deal but then we have skills like Touch of Death and Howling Fist that got removed that really shouldn't have been removed.

Consolidation =/= Ability pruning. Consolidation is what allows us NOT to prune older abilities when adding new ones. Most significant skills we've lost were lost due to a lack of logical consolidation (Fire IV <-> Blizzard IV, etc.) amid rising ability counts.

[Defensives] don't reward smart play and that's my only real complaint about them.

They do, though. I've frequently lived through the time it takes healers to be hardcast rezzed by a SMN by grace of RoE. I'd prefer healers have a degree of smart-casting or that AoE heals had lower relative power as not to make DPS defensives unimportant while healers are still alive, but defensives do reward smart play. I wouldn't be against making them do that more significantly, but you're literally asking for the removal of something that provides more opportunities per minute to reward skillful play than do the skills whose removal upset you (ToD and HF, each outside of highly specific contexts).