While your points are right and I agree with them, you need to consider the battle regimen stuff. Currently I don't see them very often in normal parties or even during guild leves. A lot of people don't like them, since it seems to be such a hassle.

Let's say we raise the DEF and HP of the mobs for lenghty battles. The only way to decrease that time and "optimize" the fight would be the BR's. Then you need to overhaul the BR's a bit. At the moment there's no limitation on party members participating in the BR's order. You need 1 person who actually decides how many persons can activate their skills and of course, start the regime.

They could keep the BR-System but I'd add some time frames. Let's say Player A is setting it up and the other's only have like 5-10 secs to place their skills into the order and after that certain time has passed, the BR is activated. This would probably kill the possibility that more than 3-4 players participate in the BR but on the other hand, is that even neccesary?

The "old school" WS->SC->MB from FFXI was cool, but since S-E wants to create a new game, I wouldn't want to see it in FFXIV. On the other hand I wouldn't say "no" to them eitherway

Another word on the battle length. If they really increase the HP+DEF and maybe ATT of the mobs for more difficulty, they need to REALLY make big improvements on the classes. Like you said, there should be no spam fest of 1111111. Instead chosing a skill should mean something. And working together as a team should be more effective.