I haven't played mmo's nearly as long as the op but I did play a tank at the very top of EQ2 and I have always been a clicker. If your reaction time is good enough it is not an issue at all.

To me it comes down to a very simple concept. Lets say a single mother of two has a very important force relic in her possesion that would greatly help both Jedi and Sith. - A Jedi would negotiate and do something for the family that would help them in return for the artifact. -A Sith would take the artifact by force, killing the family if they got in his(her) way. So yeah, overall the Sith philosophy is 'evil'.

I agree in principal that it could get out of hand. But when a character is a Padawan and also a possible romance option, they should be viable to take along on missions. The difference between Nadia and Tharan was so drastic that I just 'power romanced' her to get thru the story and used Tharan for everything. That doesn't make her much of a Padawan imo.

I'd prefer a change to train her to either tank or heal tbh. But since that wasn't one of your options, I normally leave her in perforation (when I use her at all). As a shadow tank, I have little use for her because Tharan Cedrax allows for so much more.