I've said it once and I'll say it many times, I am strongly opposed to a full conversion to auto attack, and this is after a long thought process on it. My reasons to go against it outweigh the reasons for it. Then again, I prefer manual control in many aspects of life. Perhaps a character flaw.

It's as RyneM said above, basic actions are a very important part of the current game scheme, and since several of these basic attacks actually do something as opposed to others (in most cases) the devs would have to figure out how to balance the loss of control on these actions into the auto attack system. As Pugilist, do I want to hit harder or boost my evasion and defense, or sacrifice a bit more stamina for more TP? As Lancer, do I really want to hit everything between me and the monster or not in a basic action? Do I need to start enabling myself to run away and start using Close Shot/Heavy Thrust? Do I need to lop off many heads at once with my axe or would I prefer leaving it with a grievous wound? How would the devs implement choices like these and be able to satisfy party and solo playstyles in an auto attack system without doing some real major, potentially game breaking changes?

I am well aware that there is a lot of repeat of actions in quite a few cases - Im personally fine with this, though I realize many are not. If it is to merely enable socializing to implement auto attack, why not go with an option to enable it mid combat if you need/want to chat? Why not have a feature that enables queuing up of actions to allow you to chat mid combat while those automatically execute, similair to the already implemented Battle Regimen system? There is a clear division among everyone I know about this issue, and the only solutions I see are the two I just mentioned that would satisfy both halves of the argument without stepping on anyone's toes. Concesus of all that I follow on Lodestone prefer a choice, others thought the latter was a good idea.

On a closing note - stamina management is a part of the game, and few I know that are R50 taking on NMs have any major complaints about the system as it is, they just think it needs refinement. Mashing an attack to get TP more often than not leaves you out of the battle regimen, and this is personal experience.