Quote Originally Posted by Kitru View Post
At which point you have to ask what the entire point of the system is?
The point of the system is so that the game knows which target an enemy should be attacking. Managing that system isn't fun for a lot of people, though. That's why some MMOs, WoW being the primary example, have moved away from threat/aggro being a fundamental part of tanking and instead give tanks more control over their own survival.

In WoW, tanks' focus is on generating resources to allow them to use their primary defensive abilities. For example, warriors use Shield Slam and Revenge to generate rage, and spend rage to activate their Shield Block or Shield Barrier abilities, which reduce the damage they take. This makes their survival more dependent on their own actions in combat (rather than the stats on their gear, or the actions of their teammates) and to generally play more like DPS does, which a lot of people find more fun.