All your opinions are wrong

[Valence]

MCH can go back to do damage rivalling the top end again when it goes back to having Stormblood heat + ammo management (which I want). It needs more damage in general, I agree, but certainly not SAM level with the current gameplay flow/loop.

Where can I get a refund for my current MCH, because I want to go back to earlier versions?

I mean sure BRD is on the level of DNC if you don’t care about proc optimisation

You are probably dropping like 10 casts of emperyal arrow but it does make BRD easier

Unfortunately beyond PP optimization that is pretty apparent when playing the job at least once, most of the complexity of the rotation comes from its clunk tied to EA, skill speed and drift. Keeping up the burst aligned and all the songs optimized to the second (there is a reason different openers are called like 3-6-9, which correspond to song timers), is another story.
Which also goes to show how hollowed out the design of the job has been over the years, because most of the complexity of it those days is just fighting against the rotational structure, which most people don't see unless they actually try to play the job at high level.

Either way, as someone said above, difficulty is very subjective. I strive with rng and proc jobs but I am absolutely terrible with spreadsheet (old) BLM uptime planning for example, while some friends of mine cannot wrap their heads around rng and procs. I think I'd legitimately, not have difficulties playing VPR at high level per se, but the high APM would definitely distract me a lot from fight mechanics for example, while for some other players, they'd just be baffled by that very idea. I also find BRD very easy (but harder than snoozefest DNC) because I'm used to it, and while it tends to be more demanding than MCH with microcomplexities, ultimately I can play it better than MCH even though I've extensively raided with both, just because I'm more sensitive to APM spamm following a script than what BRD finicky little things to track ask of me. And yes, I do think that rotationally VPR is a joke.