UngeheuerLich
Legend
Patient Defense and Step of the Wind combined are not as good as the Rogue's Cunning Action. I realized after the fact that I said nothing about Unarmored Defense. There is a strong MAD in the monk, much more than the Barbarian having Unarmored Defense on Constitution. The monk's AC is mediocre. Not terrible but not plate armor. I think a lot of the problem players find is that they run out of Ki just stunning because with many sub-classes it is their only truly effective combat ability. WoTC seems afraid of OPing the monk with a sub-class that actually improves the monks effectiveness by taking it.
I disagree. Monk and Barbarian are equally mad. And the barbarian unarmored defense is rather a ribbon feature, as usually the barbarian can't afford higher than 14 dex. So the barbarian can as well use scale mail pr half plate for most of its career and not use unarmored defense at all.
Also, with bonusactionfree offhand attacks, patient drfense suddenly becomes very good. It is just not as good as cunning action which does not allow for bonus action dodge, because it is just too big of a damage loss to be considered useful. And when it seems useful, just disengaging is usually the better option.