EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
A game should not be making you choose between doing the things that are fun to play and doing the things that are rewarded by the game's fundamental mechanics.You don't like playing a Monk and you don't like using Ki for a defensive option when you do, but that doesn't make it wrong or stupid, especially when the players who use these "stupid" design elements are the ones who also have fun with the class.
This "advance the game state" crap is a bunch of nonsense. Options that make the game more enjoyable are what matters, not theory crafting about what advances the game, especially when that theorycrafting is not backed up by any mathematics.
As an aside, Armor on a fighter is a defensive option, so I guess your Fighters all go naked since wearing armor doesn't "advance the game state".
Doing the fun things should be the same thing as doing the stuff the game rewards you for doing. That is the essence of good game design: making it so that people who want to play well and people who want to have fun choose to do the same things.