AST apm is perfectly fine in my opinion, it's actually the same as in ShB and as mentioned there's nothing wrong with some jobs having a busier playstyle.

AST's main issue is too many buttons being filler or worthless. Redraw is a fraction of a percent dps utilized correctly. Similarly Astrodyne is a glorified Lucid Dream and the 2 and 3 seal buffs are again a fraction of a percent. MA is basically a single free aoe Malefic every 2 minutes. Also the APM has been funneled into the 2 minute burst window now, so you break your fingers every 120 sec with long stretches of not doing much in between and Lightspeed is held hostage by this burst window.

If they can address all those it'll be a big improvement, but lowering overall APM isn't really necessary.