Why doesn't pve have pvp combo structure?

[ForteNightshade]

I'd wager that if they consolidated combos and added another interesting skill/ mechanic, you'll have even more fun optimizing that for a whole fight. Skill pruning will happen but many would rather see skills pruned/ consolidated that add very little for 99% of the fight and make room for skills that do instead of keeping everything as it is and risk losing more interesting skills because the basic 1-2-3 can't be touched.
You brought up a good argument with phase transitions but it seems you have yet to understand the other side of the argument.

Based on...? Because the past two expansions have shown precisely the opposite. For ease of comparison, lets simplify both sides. People in favor of combo consolidation are essentially expecting/wanting a return to job complexity similar to Heavensward Dark Knight. Conversely, those of us on the opposing side have no belief whatsoever the devs will do anything of the sort and their big reveal will be more akin to "Inner Release Mastery" where now you spam five Inner Beasts! So creativity, OH EMM GEE!!

Jesting aside, I certainly can't speak for everyone but I'd be far more willing to embrace combo consolidation if SE actually went in the former direction, or even took a step further. How often do you see tanks wanting additional combos? Give Dragoon a third combo or have Vorpal Thrust weave into Full Thrust for a new effect. In other words, give us some meaningful engagement if we're going to lose the, admittedly, minute amount we have. A primarily complaint with Bard this expansion is despite having roughly the same rotation, the job feels completely gutted. Iron Jaws buff snapshotting and Foe's were ultimately something you didn't interact with often but enough to give the job a unique feel that no longer exists. That isn't to say combos are on the same level, but to highlight how small things can have a bigger impact.

Perhaps I'm too jaded with how simplified Shadowbringers made everything. I just do not believe we'll see much innovation with job design despite all this new hotbar space.

I support the idea. While mostly everyone in this thread is against it because it "Dumbs Down" the game and makes it a one button spam they fail to realize that SE could have taken this route with combo actions and kept other actions/skills instead of getting rid of them. So while it takes 3 skills and condenses them into a 1 button combo skill it'll make more room for various other skills that SE could have kept on the Job/Class or add new ones.

They could also, you know, remove the myriad of useless abilities that still remain. Repelling Shot, Piercing Talon, Fluid Aura, Seigan Fist stances, Shield Bash and etc. Some abilities were removed simply because they were "too hard," like Heavy Thrust and Straight Shot. Simply put, many skills pruned weren't necessarily due to space but to make the jobs more simplified. Therefore, they were always going to be targeted regardless of compressed combos. Meanwhile, we still have several abilities so useless, they don't even make it on most hotbars. In fact, Cure I may stand as the best example; being dubbed the "newbie trap" because of how inefficient it is. So we have plenty of skills they can drop without touching any of the ones we actually use.