I won’t be (too) longwinded here, but I feel the design philosophy and balance of the game clearly favors building glass cannon, doing high amounts of damage, and/or evading attacks. Aside from some niche Spvp bunker builds this is very much consistent across the entire game.
Dungeons/Champions? Build zerker and kill faster. You dodge/evade/block the big attacks. As a Soldier geared Necro with protection and full LF bar you want to eat the hit? Sorry, instant death. Liandri sends her regards. All that lifesteal, hitpoints, regen, toughness in the world can’t help you vs a one hit KO. Okay, so I can’t eat those large hits? Why don’t we instead blind/weaken/crowd control that boss? Nope, sorry. Defiant/Unshakable is having none of that. It would be one thing if evaders were forced to tank now and again, but how common is that compared to the plethora of one hit kill scenarios? Again. Build zerker and kill faster.
Open World? Nothing is dangerous enough to warrant defensive stats, conditions, boons, etc.
WvW? I find it ridiculous that a particular Thief build can do more damage while simultaneously taking less damage than their target and players around them. Be it over a short or extended period of time. Should they run into a less than favorable situation, be it a bad small group matchup, run into a zerg, etc. Just evade, disappear, and utilize great mobility to simply avoid the situation. A bruiser style warrior comes upon the same scenario? You have to fight it out and just die. No recourse.
Overall I just feel that pure tanks, bruisers, sustained damage types, etc. have a much lower value compared to the available spike damage/evasion options out there. The only legitimate argument I can see for this reasoning is they require a higher skill cap. I do agree in most cases that they do, but this need not be set in stone. If more effort were made towards increasing the skill cap while simultaneously improving the effectiveness of other builds this disparity would begin to fade.
Twitchy assassin/berserker type play need not be the only skillful endeavor available. Let us wade into battle and whittle down our foes should we see fit to do so. Let us stack healing power to assist allies. Why do all these others options even exist if this were not intended to be viable?