I disagree about the stat based combat being not fun but I agree about the "rinse and repeat" problem.

Personally, i find that if there's a lot of options and a need to use them, stat based or not, it'll be fun. At the opposite doing the same thing again and again can get boring.

In a stat based combat, if you have to pay attention to what the enemy do and use your skills accordingly, I think it's interesting. However if all you need to do is attack, attack,.... and heal once in awhile, the repetition will eventually get boring.

But it's the same for an action based combat system. when you have to block, dodge, counter, take position in account, etc, I find it interesting. When all you need to do is attack, attack.. or repeat a pattern like wait :"for the enemy to attack, jump to the left, attack" then it get boring after awhile too.