"Balance" starts at the core design

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Ranger- Straight forward design with 2 weapon slots and skills on cool down (exception is resource gated Druid heal mechanics.) Straight forward Profession Mechanics.

Warrior- Straight forward design with 2 weapon slots and skills on cool down. Straight forward Profession Mechanics.

Guardian- Straight forward design with 2 weapon slots and skills on cool down. Straight forward Profession Mechanics.

Mesmer- Straight forward design with 2 weapon slots and skills on cool down. Straight forward Profession Mechanics.

Necro- Straight forward design with 2 weapon slots and skills on cool down. Forced dependency on resource gated Profession Mechanics due to overall design.

Engineer- Access to 1 main weapon that is only effective for either melee range or mid range or long range. Must use 1 of 3 slot skills to be on the same level of weapon access as every other profession (aside from ele). Skills on cool down. Straight forward Profession Mechanics

Thief- Access to 2 weapons that use Initiative resources that allow thief to "spam" whatever skill necessary multiple times. Straight forward Slot Skill designs and Profession Mechanic.

Revenant- Access to 2 weapons (only after (allowed) HoT beta community input). Resource gated weapon skills and slot skills. Straight forward Profession Mechanics.

Elementalist- Access to 1 main weapon that is only effective for either melee range or mid range or long range. Must master Attunement swapping and dealing with 20 Attunement skills that mostly vary in function and range.

So... You have core profession designs all over the place. Some straight forward designs. Some "funky" designs. Some "clunky" designs. Some completely unbalanced designs by design... And those core differences are counter productive to a quality, and "balanced" and "that spec is viable" pvp experience.

Sure, for example, Holo works well, and much better than core engineer or scrapper... But shouldn't all of the engineer specs be viable? And shouldn't all the engineer specs start on a level playing field as all the other professions?

Why would most players subject themselves to playing the Attunement piano and fighting from a 1 weapon range deficit, when there are much "smoother" and rewarding options? I'll even be bold and say that I can guarantee that the Ele profession is the least represented, or mained, in spvp and wvw...

So... my belief is that if we want some serious healthy changes, we need to look at creating common foundation designs for all professions and grow from there. Each profession would still be completely unique even if core design mechanics were made the same. Providing some common and straight forward designs would not ruin the game, it would only help "balancing" for the long run. More players would experiment with different professions, and specs, because a change like this would make picking up any profession, and spec, feel more comfortable to play. And having common core designs, that are "smooth" to use, allows the players to focus on fast paced combat, not micromanaging various mechanics.

engi gets tool belt skills instead of 5 extra weapon skills, I myself don't like their over reliance on kits as an alt to weapon swapping because it ties in with to many traits what limits the engi. I also guess a thief killed you at some point with their spam skills. the initative system was created to allow thieves to chain combo skills together to make them feel fast and fluid. but their always going to be one skill that better and you just spam that over and over, that more a player mentality issue. the Mesmer rework was great for Mesmer so maybe each profession will get a rework over time.

All engineer have the toolbelt + elixir gun, so it's even better than 2 weapons.

So, here's my two thoughts on your post from someone who plays a LOT of mesmer, thief, and engineer. For elementalist, why would I want to have 1 weapon set and 4 attunements along with the case of weaver having dual attunements? It allows me to be very adaptable to situations. Yes, there are a lot of skills to learn, and in order to use it effectively in PvP you need to learn the combos as well, but that's exactly what makes it good. You are hard to predict, and can make a choice on if you want to blast water fields to heal, fire fields for might, or go defensive and heal, or go in earth, or attack with fire or air. I can adapt to many more situations better than most other classes. As for thief, anyone that just spams skills will just be punished by players that know how a thief works. Their initiate will dry up, and then they can't escape and die super easy. Dagger 2 spam is a sign of a thief that doesn't know what they are doing. As for engineer, I've been playing it since core as well, and back in the day, it was absolutely amazing. Having the ability to switch out kits, having combo fields to make use of, condi and power both available, it was amazing but with a higher skill floor. The reason it's not run like that anymore isn't because of the "difficulty", it's because it's simply outclassed by new elite specs. At first, I thought the one weapon was a drawback, but honestly, it really isn't due to the availability of kits and their insane versatility. Pre HoT, tool kit was the only way to melee on the class, but we now have options, though in their current state, it seems like anything but holo is outclassed. That being said, since the last patch, I've seen more scrappers, and core engi in WvW, so they may be better than the community gives them credit for. I need to do more testing.

Anet never looks back, they mostly only move forward. Thats their philosophy. Old things will only rarely/never will be reworked. Just give up hope now. :)