Yeah, the high level content in this game (Primals in particular) are like school exams: you study for them, you take mocks and eventually pass, and then the knowledge needed becomes irrelevant for the rest of your life. You didn't learn to play the game, you learned to win that one fight.

Now, randomness in fights has the chance to go horribly wrong or let players just blaze through, on blind luck on both counts. So it's not good as a skill check either way. Implementing a smart AI for the Primals rather than a rotation would be an interesting solution, but all we really need are fights that can and will go in unexpected directions, not to the point where they are impossible, but so that skilled players can adapt to the changing situation and pull off a win.

I think the thing is that coming up with gimmicks and programming set rotations of abilities is just easier. They have to churn something out every three months, so they're on a tight schedule.