This is perhaps something that might come off as spiteful in a way, but I feel like it's worth bringing up.
I'm looking at all of the AST complaints. That it has lower rDPS contribution in comparison to WHM and SCH, that it's kit and heals feel weak.

WHM was in this exact same situation for both HW and SB, with possibly an even larger gap in DPS, lower heals and a clunky kit, and yet the majority opinion was that "WHM is fine, it's still viable".
Now, AST of course is due for a buff. And in general, raid utility always beats personal DPS, so once we're back to our usual AST/SCH unbreakable comp for the rest of ShB, can we never go back to "WHM is fine" arguments? WHM hasn't changed much. We have mobile heals and, currently, the highest DPS potential. Once raid utility scales higher and shoots past that, and our personal DPS starts to become lower than what an AST can bring in utility, and our heals already being weaker than SCH, we're going to be right back where we were for the past 4 years.

I am not in any way trying to undermine AST issues. I just hope that if history repeats itself, we instead can treat WHM how we're treating AST right now.