SOME ramp is going to be required; I don’t think blizzard is going to be OK with a spec always at 98-99% of it’s power all the time. I just think there’s a better balance to that then we’ve seen the past two expansions.
Also the stacking haste is what is motivating about the gameplay; it’s part of what ropes you in and feeds the adrenaline in the gameplay loop and improves the response of the spec as you fight the drain increasing.
SOME base haste for VF would also help curve/pull back on some of the ramp baseline and we could see even further reduction with COI going away.