So here's my 2c as a fairly new player who was really enjoying their dom up until I tried to solo anything. Domination sucks. Exclusively active defenses plus a bar you have to fill plus enemies that resist mez harder than you do while CCing you is not an enjoyable experience. Really wanted to stick with the AT, but when it goes bad, it is just absolutely horrible. I don't mean horrible in group effectiveness - it was really quite fun, most of the time, in those cases - but solo it is utterly miserable.
Another awkward thing about this AT is that because of the way domination works, if you're unfamiliar with all the various anti-CC buffs and whatnot, you won't actually really get to see what any of them do or look like--unless dom drops, maybe because you looked away for a second or answered a message, and suddenly none of your abilities work at all.
What really stuck out to me is that I was capable of soloing *certain* +4/8s, and yet there were missions that felt impossible even on +0/0. It's a baffling, inconsistent experience.
I guess this is more an attempt to support the OP's stance that this is a problem moreso than suggest solutions. Having the bar start out full would provide an easier baseline to balance such an awkward mechanic around, I think.