i can punch large bats to death on a naked level 4 druid
does any pve really matter?

Dagorn, from a fun factor perspective I like hybrids. I just got a chance to play a 60 paladin in HS and like Shadowknights they have a lot of tricks they can pull. If they just got defensive or evasive to make them viable raid tanks I would be totally down to play one.

That being said, I think you are totally underestimating the OP factor of monks. Nlaar (DE SK) and Bugen (Iksar Monk) did an AC test once; their conclusion was that monk block and SK hps just about canceled out with complete heal. If you check out Daltheb's videos you can see that both he and Perun regularly tanked Trakanon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap5xiEQcMdY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWX2adECIk8

Some of that is whirlwind disc of course. So basically in Kunark, monks can tank almost anything, do almost as much DPS as rogues, and are the best pullers (plus they have an easy epic!) In Velious high-end monks are going to be even more sick when the hit the AC cap with 60AC legs off of the Avatar of War and tons of ALL/ALL gear from NTOV and pick up 16/19 weapons from Vulak. They won't be main tanking stuff, but then neither will Shadowknights.