The problem for me isn't just the combat system, they threw too many eggs in the MSQ basket, for example ARR we had way more dungeons than any expac and they weren't all tied to the MSQ, now every dungeon is MSQ based. The sense of world is reduced by this IMO.

Also I disagree that the issue is making things easier for casuals, it's not. it's laziness from the dev team. For example, tanks used to have like 2 or 3 ogcd buffs, now most have close to 10. They reduced weaponskills and abilities to reduce button "bloat", but the issue was never buttons to press. The issue is the number of OGCD buffs that should have been brought into weapon and ability skill combos for each class so that you spend your time pressing multiple buttons and engaging with you class mechanic, not just 1,2,3 to build a meter, then your press you 4 damage buffs press your 3 meter moves, and then rinse and repeat every 2m. Most of the buttons you press are buffs the rest of the time you press the same 3 buttons, it's dull and clearly only implemented because it's easier to balance by just slapping on a move that gives +20% mit or dmg etc, than to actually develop mechanic that you constantly engage with. I would argue even WoW now has better class fantasy, cause even though their classes are super homogenised, you at least constantly interact with the class features, you don't just sit there pressing 1 for 2m, all because the devs balance their game around world first spreadsheet players.