I think people may be missing the inherent problem Skill chains had. It may not be as much of an issue now, as parties will generall be smaller (4-8);however, in parties with multiple players Skill chains REQUIRED other players not participating to hold back their damage while a skill chain was taking place. Effectively forcing other players to do less in order to not screw up the skill chain. Turns out, this was not effective, in fact, it was more effective to constantly throw out a random succession of attacks as quickly as possible. In the end, aside from the accidental occurences, skill chains were largely ignored. *note in some situations skill chains were highly effective such as battlefields BCNM/ENM/Assault/Limbus etc but were still smaller parties*

Battle regimen on the other hand, allows MANY players to participate very quickly. I do not know if theres is a maximum # of participants outside the number of allowable players in a party;however, you could potentially have 15 well coordinated players perform a battle regimen together in the same time frame of two players. So, I'm sorry, but battle regimens are extremely effective and certainly more effective than skill chains.

HOWEVER BR still leaves something to be desired. Lackluster animations/ high learning curve etc...

That said, I would say the battle regimen is an improvement of the Skill chain system, aside from the mentioned shortfalls.