More cutscenes. Voice acting. More immersive storylines.
A different approach to animation times and rooting. More instance specific combat mechanics that require player response.
Quicksand is a Control power with a debuff side effect. Similar to how Rain of Fire has a Slow but can't be slotted for Slow. If it was slottable they would have to reduce the base value.
As was said, if they are not attuned then the level of the enhancements might make a difference.
There ARE enemies that do more than 8 points of knockback, but that's mostly only bosses.
And they were singin', bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"
They're better than people give them credit for.
When I say that I mean something very specific.
Some people say FF is good at One thing only, Defense.
This is not true. It's good at Defense, Mez Protection, and Mob Placement.
Few players actually learn to become good at mob placement, but you can and it can be fun and useful, even at high levels.
Yes to the customization. No to damage buffs or pet buffs. They already provide good buffs to their pets and if you slot the Pet IO specials they have plenty of survivability.
I know what you're saying, and in a Real World analysis, ESPECIALLY a class analysis, you would be absolutely right.
But in the context of the MCU, they are definitely all heroes.
A big part of why Mind is popular on Dominators and not Controllers is the lack of a pet.
Dominators don't need pets to do damage for them, so what is seen as a negative for Controllers (lack of a pet) is a strength for Doms (a second big AoE control).
Adding additional rewards for using those modes, and I think even very Minimal rewards like 1 Reward Merit per mission perhaps or perhaps even less, would encourage people using them, thus increasing difficulty within the existing systems.