I hate to say it, but they can tweak potency numbers and duration all they want, it wouldn't change the core issue with how these modes play out. Players do not have equal agency with how the game prioritizes actions, effects, animations, and even just general feedback. All too common is the situation where people are obliterated, behind a wall, with barely any chance to heal or defend themselves. You do not see this problem in PvE, because it is far more static. Here, the system just simply cannot keep everyone up to date and will only choose one result, it's not snappy gameplay at all.

So no, I wouldn't say it's intentionally unbalanced (except maybe for NIN's LB, that duration extension is just absurdly long), as much as they keep trying to tackle the wrong end of the problem and thus solving nothing that significantly sharpens up the gameplay across the board.

It's never going to be perfect, this is an MMO, someone's always going to have an intense disadvantage to overcome, to say nothing of the learning curve. But it would be nice if it didn't feel like we were all playing entirely different games or rulesets every so often.

Surprised also that Monk got mentioned as an outlier, their animation delays are terrible for weaving anything or even finishing off 1% HP enemies. And Riddle of Earth is contender for one of the worst PvP defensives in the game, so yay.

And as for Crystalline Conflict... it absolutely needs to get a better idea of what classes can substitute for others better, half the time it just feels utterly nonsensical.