Just a couple of thoughts to add to this thread.

I don't think OP is entirely wrong, a friend of mine who tried the game quit because he was bored of the fights being too much like Simon Says. Simon says this, you do that.

I also don't think there's much else they can do. This sort of difficulty exists in an MMO, I think, mainly because it's a server based game. They can't make the fights too reactive or based on execution, because lag etc would be even more of an issue than it currently is. Some of the AoEs are bad enough as it is, since their detection is server based. And things like the new BLM rotation, 1 sec lag spike completely screws up your stacks. So I think they're making the best of what they've got.