I think the Monk's level 1 issues are dealt with by the change to Martial Arts that allow them to Dodge/Bonus Unarmed Strike (and then Dodge/Flurry at level 2).
Yeah, I didn't initially realize how significant untying the unarmed strike from the attack action was. In play, you kind of start thinking of the action as the bonus action in some situations.
For example, at level 10, you have have two distinct tanking options. If you're really in the thick of it, you can use the bonus action for Patient Defence. I've never used the free disengage with this, but having dodge, plus extra temporary hit points, plus deflect attack makes you a
very strong tank, and you are still getting two attacks. My monk is AC 21 (dex 20, wis 16, bracers of defence, ring of protection) and she is very, very hard to take down now.
Or, if you don't need to be quite that beefy, you take the dodge action and still get three attacks off flurry of blows. (I'm playing a mercy monk though, so if the target isn't immune to poison and she's 1v1, she doesn't need to worry about using doge at all. Options!).
Right from level 1 you can always have the dodge action up while still getting offence in. Which, on top of getting hit less often overall, also makes you virtually immune to taking a critical hit in melee. At level 1, a surprise critical does in more characters than anything else.