Samurai is dead to me, thanks square (Kaiten 6.2)

[Jaquan]

It was 20 Kenki and forced you to not spend it all on Shintens which are 25 kenkis. So it gave some form of Kenki management. Additionally, Iaijutsus are not GCDs they are casts. Hence the need to press something before doing it, otherwise you have GCD cooldopwn + cast time which is a lot of nothing in between.
Using it well was rewarding and it is how Samurai was designed in 4.0. It was a core gameplay mechanic of samurai.
In this alone, it's is very different from life surge in terms of execution and feeling.

Using it well? I don't see much options to use it poorly considering you can squeeze it before any Midare since the base combo results in 30 kenki (when sped up with Meikyo which became standard in opener since 6.0 gave it ability to apply buffs from regular chain) totaling at 80 thanks to your battery and that's before your first Midare.