If I had to guess why they went with a dash instead of a jump for a generic gap closer it'd probably be because jump animations are always going to be more delayed than a simple shuffle over. If the skill is going to be used to engage a boss from a standing start, jumps have historically sucked for that compared to something like the mnk dash. Just that fraction of a second delay to the start of your GCD meant you'd sometimes miss a GCD at the end of a window

Personally, I think the dash is fine, especially since it's a situational skill and one that may not even get used in any given encounter. I guess it just feels bad in the context of losing 2 jumps in return for it.