Gnorman's Complete E6 Compendium

[Rizban]

Well, in all fairness, the current project has 20+ base classes and ~100 archetypes.

Which is why looking at essentially discarding that work and doing another 32 + 96 seemed a bit shocking to me.

Likely, I would pare it down to a core 12-15 classes.

I have no problems with paring down on classes or even with adding new ones. I would think, however, that before doing any of that, the best design move is to figure out just what you want from each of your classes. I am suggesting a kind of ground up rebuilding, in that you start from the beginning, figure out the end goal, then go back to what you already have and mold it to fit that design paradigm.

And I'm not necessarily trying to make combat/skilled classes more "powerful" per se, but offer them a wider range of abilities to draw on. But I appreciate your candor and will take it under consideration.
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to a certain extent I agree with the design goals therein - at least in the "every class should be able to contribute" aspect. I just want to move away from passive abilities and find more ways for non-magical classes to actively contribute to combat beyond move, attack, repeat.

I think that this is the part I'm having the most trouble with personally. I have no problem with having a few additional options, but we already have Attack, Bull Rush, Charge, Disarm, Feint, Trip, Grapple, Overrun, and Sunder plus numerous other abilities, feats, and options that trigger off of those special attacks or allow those attacks in other situations.
And, frankly, there are players who like passive abilities and the so called "mindless" hack and slash. I think a good portion of the rebellion against 4e was due to effectively making all the classes into mini mages with MMO style abilities. Not that I'm saying that is your goal or what your end result will be.

I am saying that fundamentally changing the way something works for the sake of "balance" is not always the best option. Sometimes, the better option is to take things away from the stronger class rather than to add things to the weaker one. Just look at the development of D&D Next. From what they've released, it appears to have basically turned to a mishmash of endless rules and trying to add a little bit of everything to everything else.

I'm not opposed to a less drastic overhaul, though a few classes and archetypes are still in need of a serious retooling.

Agreed.