I think they are actually fun, personally at least. I agree that it is an easy and simple way to keep melee engaging and unique from other roles. It is something I constantly and consistently have in mind when playing a melee job, and making sure to hit them have never slipped my mind. I enjoy having to think about that little extra aspect when playing melee.

I also feel its pretty easy to test-drive not having positionals, we already have fights and jobs without them. Melee jobs are built with positionals in mind, and in cases of playing melee jobs on bosses without said positionals- I find the gameplay notably less engaging.

I'm not going to pretend that positionals are some sort of amazing gameplay mechanic- but they are engaging at least to the degree that I would definitely not just forget they exist if they were removed. Removing them without adding something in its place would be, in my mind, another rather drastic and unnecessary simplification of the combat system during a period in which we are already experiencing a series of rather unnecessary and pervasive simplifications of gameplay.