The tank is the core of the group and the hardest slot to fill for both gear and class capability, and represents the backbone of the group.
Think about it. A shitty healer can keep a great tank alive, but a great healer may not be able to keep a shitty tank alive. Enchanters are great and all but aren't as necessary as people are making out (and I'm saying that as someone who mained one on live and here as well as a tank and support melee).
EQ is surprisingly nuanced with simple tasks, and tanking is usually the biggest "gear check" for what encounters you can handle. Back in the day, noone on my server would touch King in seb unless you had at least a decent 60 war or an even better SK/Pal. In this particular case you really wanted that, along with an enc of at least level 58 (rapture) and a cleric of at least 56. See where the level check was?
Finally, for the skill check, the tank controls positioning, which is arguably 90% of the raid game and a significant part of the group game. A great tank is keenly aware of what the crowd control is doing and reacts to assist it, as well as having the gear necessary to survive things going wrong. Yes, good CC and good healing make things go smoother, but the machine doesn't move at all without someone to take the hits.
Anyhow they seemed underrepresented in this thread and I was surprised, and granted some unconventional groups / soloers don't use tanks, but that doesn't take away from my point.
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