Theres 3 ranged classes. Only 2 melee.

Bard - faceroll. Ranged without getting interrupted every hit.
Smn - Hit everything at the same time from range while having pet do damage for you automatically as well
Blm - Sleep.

Melee - weapon throw once a minute. Lose all tp from sprinting, lose uptime through server delays, get binded from blizzard through a wall.
Dont get me wrong i think my monk is amazing but comparing it to stuff like marauders (noobslayers) or bards and summoners i can see why the melee player pool is smaller. Im enjoying the short queues and harder playstyle however.