So I'm a nub at MNK, but I have played it off and on since 2.x. A friend of mine was a MNK main in HW and he's been vocal about his opinions to me. Some random thoughts...

From my (a scrub's) perspective, MNK is trying to cling to outdated design principles that other classes have mostly shed with the 4.0 reworks. They kept the very basic idea of the job -stance flow/dance with the enemy- but tried to keep its useless Wind/Earth stances as NOT DAMAGE stances. As we all know, XIV has an overbearing focus on damage for every role. But MNK not only kept the stances that didn't give them damage, they gave players little reason to use them even after adding stuff to them. SE also kept the damage/utility combos (stuns on One Ilm and Shoulder Tackle) that they removed almost everywhere else because they didn't want optimal rotations to cause issues with mechanics due to earned CC immunity. Seems like inconsistent adherence to design principles by whoever was working on MNK.

My humble suggestion for the Fists issues would be to make each fist give you a timed amount of damage, kind of like BRD's songs- Fire buffs DH, Earth buffs det, Wind buffs crit, and when you use them you get a large initial boost that wears off after some time and leaves a smaller permanent one behind for as long as you're in the stance. I genuinely like the idea of swapping stances on the fly to hit as hard as I can, and even if one stat is favoured over the others by min-maxers, the small buffs would not be worth passing up the larger bonuses to other offensive stats. At least, that's the concept. It feels like SE wants us to use the other stances but if they don't give damage, we probably never will. You could make Earth Stance grant total damage immunity on activation and it would still be niche (though OP). So why not change what kinds of damage we get by using them? If stat buffs are no good, what about additional effects on the basic skills?

And please, gating fun buttons behind RNG is AWFUL. Even if it's balanced. Us WHM mains threw such a fit about having our stupid flowers gated behind random procs that SE gave in and made it 100% for Cure I and II (the system still sucks but that's neither here nor there). It's great that MNK doesn't have to wait for downtime to regain Chakra any more but hoping you get lucky and have a good comp for it sucks.

I don't think One Ilm Punch will ever be used as long as it has a utility effect. The situations where 1) it's available and 2) you need/want to use it are so, so rare. I don't want to go so far as saying that it should be removed, but if they can't think of anything better to do with it... well, one of the things my friend hated most about 4.0 MNK was the loss of "stuff" to do (RIP Touch of Death). Maybe make it grant a timed self-buff effect? I know the theme of One Ilm Punch is supposed to be a tiny punch with a huge disabling effect on the opponent, but it doesn't seem to be working out after all these years.

I agree with a lot that's in the OP. MNK is a huge mess of RNG and conflicting bad design decisions that combine to make it still recognizable as the punching job, but slower and less fun to play. (Why did they think making a stance that forced you to trade speed for power was a fun thing that people would like on a job that's all about fast-flowing combos and constant movement? Did they learn nothing from 3.x BRD?) My friend gave up MNK and hasn't looked back since it was so simplified up to 60 then slowed down if he wanted to do max damage at higher levels. Like a lot of things in SB I wonder if the devs balanced jobs they played, or even knew why people liked to play them. There's no mandate saying everyone has to enjoy a job the same way but from what I understood most people liked MNK for its speed and flow. Why ruin that, even if it's still great power-wise?

Also, just as a thought, the biggest thing keeping me from actually liking MNK has been part of it's design since 2.x- I hate, hate, hate the short timer on GL stacks. I know it's gone up but every time a boss jumps away I die a little inside. Especially with the long Perfect Balance CD. Gee I'm sure looking forward to rebuilding all my stacks before it jumps away again. That's more of a petty, personal nitpick though. But please consider decreasing the current CD on Perfect Balance- I'd like the job a lot more if I didn't have to spend so long ramping back up almost every blippin' time the dungeon boss decides it's time to run away. It's not fun, it's tedious and annoying.

Thank you for reading this nublet's complaints about a job they want to like but just can't seem to get into.