i hated ffxi skill chains. They were tedious to set up. You had to have spesific weapon skills not just hand to hand ws or lance ws.
And depending on the persons weapon skill level, they might not even have the needed ws. There was also trying to skill chain around everyone else. People just gave up on them.
It either took to long to set up.
people weapon skilled during the set up skill chain
The tank lost hate causing the mob to move.
BR are more freer and with the que up can be easier to set up. Just need people to que up faster.

So it wasn't people didn't have skill to use them. It was just to much to work around everything. Skill chains only worked well in ls groups who were patient. Also skill chains in ffxi only caused elemental damge.

While br do debuffs to aid in various things. Do not hate on a system because you lack the patience in learning to be better at it. It takes time to be good in something.