DavyGreenwind said:
The problem with templates, is that building your own statblock is tedious, let alone 6 or 7 statblocks. With pre-generated, unique statblocks, you just pull it up, use your own mental scores and HP, and you're ready to go.
A core class in the PH should not require a new player to reference any book other than the PH.
Monster Templates in spells and class abilities are proven to work. That should be how it works for Druid Wildshape too.
The mechanical aspect can work very easily, with the "tedious" work being needing to update only 1 statblock once per level, and the "fun" work being when you get to choose the modular abilities offered by Wildshape, letting you represent your chosen shape. Even then, it would be easy to remember ahead of time which of the available abilities best represent the wildshapes you prefer.