Cloud is also referenced in the DRK /vpose, /bstance, and male /cpose.

There's more to it than oversized swords, though. Many games go the Monster Hunter/Dark Souls route with their greatswords, with a big wind-up and massive hit. That's a fine approach, except that's exactly how WAR was designed from the ground up, and it actually has hitstop to add proper weight to its animations. One of the biggest reasons why Delirium feels so unsatisfying to use is because it just doesn't carry that raw, brutal force that the IR window does.

Cloud takes a completely different approach altogether, by making the greatsword look weightless. Instead of building up to one massive hit, he overwhelms opponents with flurries of attacks. And if you look at the original design of DRK with Blood Weapon's speed boost, it had a very similar feel.

There's another reason why this is nice as well. Cloud circumvents the '9999' limit with multi-hit attacks. And that's a really cool aesthetic. Suzaku's Phantom Flurry remains one of my favorite boss abilities. Imagine if Carve and Spit's threefold attack actually registered as a threefold attack. Or if Delirium registered multiple hits for every attack under its effect. Omnislash is simply that same design choice, taken to its ultimate form.

The dev team clearly understands the importance of nostalgia in FFXIV's design. I mean, it always comes up in player surveys as well. Why did MCH change to be less like Mustadio and progressively more like FFVI's Edgar? Why did MNK get reworked simply to take on board Sabin's Blitzes? (Psst... Dolphin Kick next expansion.) Why is GNB so faithful to Squall and Seifer's movesets? Would I be surprised if Lionheart showed up at level 100 as a continuation finisher? Not even in the slightest.

The main reason that they're likely holding out with Omnislash is for the same reason that they pulled a cop-out with Save the Queen, in that they didn't want to commit to giving away such an iconic reference to just one job. Which is bizarre, because they happily gave away Excalibur, Ragnarok, and Apocalypse without a second thought back in ARR. But I'm sure that if they ever do an FF7 crossover event, there will be a PLD, WAR, DRK, GNB, SAM, and BLM Buster Sword, just so that nobody feels left out. Beyond dumb.

From a mechanics perspective, a burst window with a 1.5s GCD isn't really a ping challenge in itself. You'll always be at a disadvantage with higher ping. I think that the reason why players run into issues with MCH's Hypercharge is because of the frequency of the Gauss Round/Ricochet resets. Reaper manages just fine with Shroud because there is a single predictable weave every second attack.