We are approaching a button bloat problem that can be solved

[anhaato]

123 is not button bloat you're just lazy

[Packetdancer]

123 is not button bloat you're just lazy

It's not button bloat, per se, but the game developers demonstrably want to keep the number of actions per job to a certain maximum number -- which honestly makes sense, given that the game needs to retain controller support -- and if the option is "remove actions to make space for new ones, leaving the job even more sparse at low levels", "don't make new actions in an expansion and just upgrade existing ones via trait", or "combine some actions into single actions that change based on combat state", I know I'd prefer the last option.

And there are plenty of examples where they can. For instance, it's not really necessary for Draw and Play to be two separate buttons for AST, as has been pointed out; you cannot Play unless you've used Draw to get a card, and there is almost no scenario in which you're going to deliberately want to Draw a new card when you already have one out. (After all, even a card that's not optimal is still a DPS gain if played on someone, so why throw it away?) If they need to make space for a new action on AST in the future, combining those two into one action (that turns into Play once you have a card out, and back into Draw once you've played the card) would be an excellent place to do so. Reaper's various states already do this sort of thing with a number of attacks, as does ninja with mudras when you hit Ten-Chi-Jin.

And SGE provides an interesting example of a different consolidation approach with Eukrasia; instead of a single-target DPS spell and a single-target DoT, plus raw and shielded single-target and AoE heals, Eukrasia just switches between the two modes. Thus, you put six potential actions onto four buttons: Dosis/E. Dosis, Diagnosis/E. Diagnosis, Prognosis/E. Prognosis, and Eukrasia itself.

I'd personally prefer the base 1-2-3 DPS sequences not be combined, for a variety of reasons (though would prefer it to actions being stripped out entirely to make room for new ones); as noted above, I don't find the new combo'd Gnashing Fang chain nearly as satisfying on Gunbreaker, and it would be even more annoying with the primary DPS rotation. I'm a healer main, I already get enough "hit one button repeatedly for DPS" from that, thanks.

But most jobs still have at least some things that could be combined a'la Draw and Play, if there's a need to free up action space for new actions in the future.