What were devs thinking when they made Monks?

[Foxplay]

Pretty sure their goal was a well rounded, more self sufficient fighter but pays for it by having to abide by a more narrow gear selection and a weight limit (or incur armor class penalty).

Both of these inconviences where made very easy and pretty negligible come later expansions.

Kunark and Velious and later expansions made gear selection for monk a breeze

Even by just Velious a lot of raid gear has 0.1 wt or even less making their weight limit really easy to achieve with just a couple 100% weight reduction bags

In the end, yes Classic EQ and some of their "balance" or... well lack there of balance decisions are a curious beast. I like the idea of monks having to focus on light weight gear and having the high (avoidance), I think they just turned their back on the whole "Penalties" idea with gearing as the game progressed