Whether they were well-received or not, is in my opinion, not relevant. Old monk, for how jank it felt, was the positional job. Old summoners, for how jank it also felt, was the pet job. Old bard was also the dot job. All three of those jobs can not be said to fulfill those niches anymore. The changes to these three choices reduced the amount of gameplay variety in the game, and I think we can all agree that is not a good thing. Personally, I hate positionals, all the bosses in this game spin like a beyblade. But if someone wants to torture themselves with positionals, more power to them. The game needs to allow more gameplay choices via the picking and choosing of jobs. If the job system doesn't allow that, what is the point of a job system?

Now ninja no longer fulfills the niche of the one minute buff job. Im not sure why the devs feel the need in ew to remove all the niches that jobs occupied, but they are doing so. But if your job has a niche? Enjoy it while it lasts. Ninjas just seems to be part of a recent dps role trend of removing variety.