Even if WAR was consistently cones, which would be better than the inconsistency, cones are still inferior to 360 degree AoEs.
During a pull, mobs naturally crowd around the tank, forcing you to constantly reposition every time you use your cone attack. Maybe this wasn't all that apparent before when you were forced to reposition every single GCD anyway because you were swapping between cone and 360, but if they just made all of WAR's AoEs cones, you'd still be playing it the same stupid janky way.
And if you play multiple tanks at all, the inconsistency is jarring. You build up a natural sense of when a mob is in range, so that you can run through the pack and AoE at the right time to grab them all. Having a cone completely throws off this sense.