What are the largest issues plaguing XIV currently?

[Shurrikhan]

Do the three modes use 2 buttons for the purpose of shuffling your buttons around?

They use two buttons because there's no reason to have a third. If you're already in a given mode, why would you need a button for it? That's the equivalent of having a button to "stand still" when there's no force acting on your character anyways.

Is it designed annoyance you'll get used to or is it there just to reduce the number of buttons?

Depends. Do you like having a button for "Accelerate", "decelerate", AND "keep going at the same speed you're already doing"? If so, it might be a bit annoying to you, but that doesn't make annoyance a design intent. The example merely uses as many buttons as are needed.

The charge mechanic cannot happen because this is a tab-target game.

Charge mechanics exist in other tab-target games, you realize?

You press button, something happens.

Yes. In this case, charging happens. Stance-swap happens on button release. If you don't want the charge before that given swap, you merely tap the key rather than holding. The .05 seconds of charge in the interim is inconsequential. If this seems overcomplicated, then beware of learning how XIV's current systems actually work.

You can currently reset your combo at any time.

You can also technically spam True Thrust or refuse to use oGCDs. That doesn't make it viable.

You've condensed the lack of choice into an illusion of choice and hid it behind unnecessary complexity just to compress it all into fewer buttons.

Let's consider: Which exactly is the illusion?

You currently have 9 buttons which convey 1 choice per 10 GCDs. As it is not viable to reset a combo, you have no choices therebetween once the combo has started.

The above illustration has 2 choices permitted in every GCD, and consumes 2 buttons to permit them. Is that somehow hiding the number of choices you have?

If I have 2 buttons by which to manage 2 decisions, does that involve more "unnecessary complexity" than using 9 buttons to actuate 1 decision?

No matter how you package this, it will be theorycrafted into an optimal rotation and, in the end, you've achieved nothing but fewer buttons.

Putting aside your reductionism by which any amount of otherwise enjoyable complexity can only ever be reduced to zero, why would requiring fewer buttons to do even same job (not the case here, but let's follow your pretext) be a bad thing?

Regardless, you seem to be under a misconception.

Naturally, to take advantage of those different skills' unique effects, you'd want more buttons. Heck, you might even want all 12 of them. But that's only effective design when you let each amount to at least a decision each for every given GCD, rather than a third, fifth, or ninth of a decision as offered every 3, 5, or 10 GCDs. Having a lot of buttons is fine, but it ought to come with commensurate depth, rather than just depth in pretense -- the reality of which, by being separated despite marking no separate decision, is squandered.

The point is not necessarily to reduce button count, but merely to give each button a damn good reason for being there. With 8 buttons for each job I can manage depth equal to or greater than what is currently in game. Personally, I like about 16 regularly used buttons, and tend towards multiple of 4, and powers of 4, specifically (because that greatly helps controller support). But that would mean tremendously greater actual depth for XIV's combat. I'd look forward to that, but that may be excessive for many who'd, say, rather point at their bloated bars and, whilst retaining more casual play, claim mental superiority over games that use half that number but to far greater nuance.