I was having this same debate, leaning towards monk because I've already leveled a tank (pally) to 58 and never played a monk before. I have a very solid twink setup ready to go, just still considering a few things. Thinking about going eyepatch human and taking a leveling path through some of the dungeons I haven't really explored before.

Pornstash ftw.

Human Monk definitely the way to go if you've got a Fungi and other nice twink gear. The Iksar regen is enormously overrated (especially 1-50) and you'll level noticeably faster on the Human. Fashion is also obviously much better.

mustache > eyepatch ;)

It aint overrated. You get an AC bonus too. Iksar Monk that's trying to solo to 60 will do it faster than a Human.

Now, if I was redesigning things, Human Monk unarmed attacks would have slightly higher base damage (and the Monk epic would add to unarmed damage rather than making the attacks weaker+faster). So in that case Human Monk would be slighter better DPS. Unfortunately it's not how things are, so there's no reason I'd pick a Human.

This is incorrect. Assuming the Human has a Fungi and other decent gear, the Iksar AC and regen bonus isn't nearly enough to overcome a 20% XP penalty. The Iksar has to kill 5 mobs for every 4 the Human kills to keep up with him, and the small advantage provided by slightly more AC and regen just isn't that noticeable.

The Iksar will obviously be a statistically superior character at 60, but the Human will get there quicker.

For a warrior does STR dictate the damage output on crits?

Wrong. Sitting regen with Fungi at Level 51 = 20 per tick, for Iksar it's 27. That's 35% more regen between pulls, but lets say 30% in total since not sitting all the time. That is already enough to make up for the exp penalty. Then on top of that the Iksar regen gets even better at Level 56 and they have an AC boost. They will level faster, while also being just straight up better.

Cool math but it doesn't work out that way in practice. 30% extra Regen sounds impressive on paper but in real world conditions it doesn't offset the XP penalty. Monks can already bind wound to 75% at 50+ and the Fungi and Mend take care of the rest.

Where are these infinite bandages coming from while soloing? Doesn't sound like the OP is going to have someone on the beck and call to be delivering them at the drop of a hat. If you are that well set up, then it would seem your interest should be in having the more powerful character at 60. So, the Iksar. The regen and AC bonus still reduces downtime anyway, they aren't going to be leveling much slower. Human sucks.