Nobody said Night was an RP skill. I said that Scourge and Wane in Terror/Rage covens were more of an RP thing when you were upset about the difference between the two. And I stand by that, because you are not sticking ranged aeon any better than ranged blindness. They are there for uniqueness more than effectiveness.
Roomwide timequake is, admittedly, a relic from the past. 8p single-target timequake was added AFTER the fact as a more realistic goal for the Researcher, and 8p is pretty much what you expect for instas from guardians and wiccans.
If we do decide to remove roomwide timequake, we'll have to rework the transcendent skill of Aeonics, and I'm like 99% sure you won't like what we cook up to fill the void.
Also, as one of the few people who has been using the skillset since its rework, there are very, very, very many instances where I've used my entire combination and done my best to progress the method and never seen them peak above moderately timewarped. I'm sure Illuminati suffers from the same on occasion, but it's not as simple as I walk in, put debuffs on you, and twiddle my thumbs.
Edit: Also, regarding 1v1 combat, you really don't have an excuse to die unless you're also progressing your own kill method and taking risks. If you played 100% safe you shouldn't really die except to very few classes and mostly because you haven't used escape mechanics early enough.