As it stands pure fighters are quite awful, and boring. There is also a very annoying fact that near all fighters take expertise much to my dismay. I honestly hate everything about the feat but since pure fighters are so weak I can see why people take it.
I'd like to suggest on top of perks pure fighters also get stances much like monks. An idea maybe is that they get more ab and damage but lose ac, a sort of twist on default barbarian rage.
I do love when I can give a clear answer to something. No.
I love well written arguments.
Alternatives to expertise actually wouldn't be so bad if done properly. But they shouldn't get special stances like monks for sure. When I think alternative uses to expertise I'm thinking get rid of the default bonuses and replace it with something "flavorful". Like say you get 10% elemental protection but 10% physical elemental vulnerability while activated. (Just a crude example)
Of course this might not even be possible without some extensive tweaking.
We might come up with something little, we might not.
Expertise has always been on our target but it's honestly at the bottom of list as nobody can bother to deal with it.
But stances will not be there. Something else, might.
Awesome, cheers.