3 skills but 4 profiles = horrible

For the next game, they should definitely do about 4 skills each.
Personally, i dont mind the 3 we have now though, I switch profiles frequently now.

One nice trick is just using only those particular skills under the main default, use them, switch to your consumable powers, mop up, and switch back once you are good to let it finish. You aren't locked to using tech powers with a tech based profile, or that. The passives in this game still count to profile levels, and are very capable boosts. I wish I spent more than a few power points differently with how ive spent what I have..

There isn't a hard coded cooldown. Changing profiles puts abilities on their respective cooldowns. So if you invest in certain passives and traits, you can make the recharge times pretty short.

It's not really all that different from having to wait for ability cooldowns. In fact if you could use more than 3 abilities, the cooldowns would have been increased regardless (or had their damage reduced) thus making this change almost pointless

It feels like an arbitrary restraint on PC. I can understand on consoles it's the only way to keep the flow of combat going without having to pause for abilities but on PC we now have to live with only 3 ability hotkeys available before needing to switch combination... and that's a fucking contrived system and overcomplicated for something that used to be simple. I'm giving a big thumbs down to the whole profile thing too. It feels like I've got cheat codes enabled when I'm constantly switching up the entire way my character moves and it makes absolutely no sense that somehow an AI which I assume is installed via some form of microchip, allows this to happen.

A hero? If anything Ryder is a noob.

They went with separate cooldowns this time. Having 5 powers that you can use all at once is not exactly balanced when skills still have reasonably low CD's.

Then we have to go back to ME3 system where all powers shared cooldowns, or back to ME1 where all powers had 20-40 sec cd's. 

Where would they put the fourth power/ability on the controller? Everything seems to work great as is. It's probably the best system they've ever used IMO. And the cool down for switching profiles is actually cool because it briefly makes you more vulnerable. I usually find cover, switch profiles, and give squad commands to cover me. The cool down actually simulates you having to reprogram your profile in the heat of battle, but then again I appreciate all the immersive role playing aspects of the Role Playing Game. It keeps it from being just another "bro shooter". Something I felt when playing ME3.

But back to ME3, we can control squade mate powers. I'd rather have that.

There is just absolutely no way someone could tell me they couldn't come up with a better system that afforded more skills to enjoy.

It isn't. 

Reapers could do it too, at their tech level.

But they don't want to.

I'm 100% sure of this.

It does not serve their purpose, as they saw it, to have properly empowered tools. Neither do Reapers coexist with organics like SAM does with Ryder.

They were too busy making people into Reapers and doing frankenstein creations and calling it ascendance. Why they hell would they be helpers to people to change abilities? That's way too much agency in the organics' hands, in their view. Much more efficient to only mess with organic minds enough to act as tools to only do much as necessary to speed the cycle.

Of all the changes they made, this might be the biggest one I hate. It slows the combat down which feels weird considering how much of it is designed to be fluid.

I used to play on Xbox and they put the extra abilities on the power wheel which took like 3 seconds to bring up and press. Plus it made combat feel technical and strategic. Quick pause, hit this guy with that, Garrus overload that guy right now, Javik hit dark channel right now, then I'll detonate this and that when off cooldown. I had sentinel and engineer play throughs where I had a buttload of abilities and loved using them all. Changing up my hot keys depending on the encounters. Loved to play a vanguard and have a squaddy prime an enemy right before I'd charge in, then hit the quick command to get a second prime in right before Nova. In ME2, command an overload and then charge in, shot gun to face, melee, shotgun again.

But I guess having tactical pause, squaddy input and encounter choice was Bad.

Mixing that with not having any squadmate command really makes it a chore to do combos (WHICH ARE SUPER FUN) until you're way hella into the game. But even then, combos are up to you and sometimes your squaddies decide to detonate them on you. I had one stretch where I primed the hell out of targets, and Cora never detonated them. Leveled up so I could detonate reliably and my first time out priming a target, Cora charges right in and sets it off. Then next time I primed, she just sat behind a rock. Liam didn't use a single ability the whole fight until an enemy had like a sliver of health and then he used frag grenade. Not when the enemies were grouped, not when enemies had a lot of health and the damage would have been really useful.

I just wish that was consistent. My squaddies barely prime a target and sometimes never detonate mine. Maybe its a difficulty thing on hardcore and insanity, but thats lame if true .It forces you to play to accomodate your squadmates versus them being a compliment for your play style. I feel like I'm doing a MP solo all game versus a SP mission with squadmates.