Monks use to wear shields, but that was removed a long time ago, at one point monks had the dice roll with hands, but I agree, that with crafted and SU, other classes surpase that now. I see decent damage done by monks, look at berengei, practices of course help your cause alot, and with dex eq they do nicely, as for mystic monk, yeah they are lame from what I've seen, I guess thats why there is no mystics
I wouldn't hold your breath for a change though, classes have been waiting for upgrades for quite some time, 3-6 months ago the updates we're every 2 days etc, now it seems were back in the "no update dead zone"