Probably a hot take, but I think only meh ASTs ever had to fish for Balance.

Balance was the only *direct* damage buff in the old iteration, but it was hardly the only overall dps increase potential for a group. Enhanced Bole was so strong, tanks didn't need to pop cooldowns if it was up for busters, so healers got more dps in. I think an Enhanced Ewer could help sustain Bard's old Foe's Requiem for longer duration party-wide dps gains? Pretty sure Ewer also prevented Machinists from needing to swap turret to resource management for more dps, too. And these were only enhanced further when buff timers could be prolonged.

I'll give you that old Arrow felt very caster-specific, and I don't think old Spear was noteworthy (was it ever a Direct Hit buff or am I misremembering a time it at least helped a little?). But putting an Arrow on a caster was still a gain! Royal Road was the problem, because almost every effect was always better as a single target buff like we have now, imo.

I don't love the singular focus of the current cards, but I don't really miss all the old effects, either. If they ever reverted, I'd very much hope for each effect to just be a different flavour of dps manipulation rather than all being direct dps buffs. I like the idea of old Minor Arcana for Lord and Lady, too, but with the strength and breadth of ASTs current off-global options, Lady would just sit and probably overheal. And I don't think I'd want Royal Road back.

Honestly, the problem always felt more like players not being okay with a deck of shuffled cards functioning like a deck of shuffled cards: randomly, using your best judgement to use the tools you got. It just never felt to me like the randomness of the deck was at-odds with the scripted nature of encounters, because 4-mans have never been lethal, and in 8mans there's another healer to compensate.