Spiritshields are not a spirit-side defence, heh, spiritshields are an outdated defence that should have been removed years ago, but sadly, was not. I've no problem with making them user-only, but asking for them to be made spirit-only is just silly…
I can certainly sympathize with the stance that the change to the ritual acquisition process removes some of the uniqueness from the class - honestly, I sort of feel the same way. However, what matters is this.
It would be interesting to see more insights into why so many players are finding combat unattractive - I can see several possible reasons, but the actual ones could be different entirely.
Not surprised on the politics dislike, it's just …