I was almost in the mood to play FF14 again

[Deo14]

[Bunch of nonsense, justifying change that commnuity pretty much unanimously disagrees with, and devs have yet to respond to us, after they specifically asked for feedback]

(It's funny, I still haven't leveled SAM...but I still have the grayed out version on my bar for posterity. )

Wow, why does this not surprise me.

Here, some research for you, so you can get yourself informed:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...Kaiten-removal
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ot_be_removed/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIHj-1_Yn1U
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ing_kaiten_to/

Here's something so you won't say I'm nitpicking stuff:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ten_that_much/

Here's my thread, you can read through it to find out that Kaiten removal barely, if even, affected APM in burst (nullifying their action bloat excuse), they have not yet added anything to replace it (nullifying their future proofing excuse) and you can get rid of 4 much lower priority buttons if you want to combat this fictional button bloat:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...6.1-SAM-rework

Quote from my thread, regarding volume of JP forum feedback:

Back in july 2022 (6 months after rework) I counted pages on JP's SAM megathread (they use chaotic megathreads for some reason). At the time, thread had 325 pages worth of discussion. Meanwhile, from SAM's release in SB (June 2017) to 6.1, there was just 170 pages. That means 170 pages in 4.5 years vs 155 pages in just half a year after 6.1 release. I think it's safe to say that even JP community wasn't excited about rework.

These are just random examples, I recommend you looking around the internet to get better idea of the situation. I'm looking forward to your reply where you'll actually give me link to those "guide makers" and "theory crafters" who are fine with it, even though I'm very skeptical if job design should be directed by someone who's hobby is min-maxing everything, because that often means minimizing fun in the process.

Also, what the hell are you talking about with the crit stuff? Kaiten added 50% potency to next weapon skill for 20 Kenki, that's all, it didn't make it guaranteed crit. The ruined synergy was in 6.1 patch, because they implemented 4 guaranteed crits for SAM in that same patch (there was 20+ changes in that patch btw), before they even made the compensation for it in 6.2, which is yet another issue caused by 6.1 SAM rework.

I highly recommend you reading my thread, I've read through many of your essays, do me a favour and read mine.