Good post. As someone who was forced to use an entirely separate program just to get Titan EX's clear (WTFast, and I also had to go as NIN for movement speed+), I felt this issue a lot.

In general, battles shouldn't be programmed to be such awful ping checks. SE should remember that not everyone lives on the datacenter's lap. As for the position of the cast bar, you can put it where you want, that's true, but it doesn't change the fact that we need to look elsewhere (at the ground) to know where to escape. And we only have one pair of eyes.