Eyonix is back, with our safety guaranteed.

Suicidal Zebra alerted this in the comments below, there's a new post by Eyonix where he details the current situation on Paladin tanking, what we can do and what's to be expected in the future. Here's a slightly shortened up edit:

...The Paladin class is designed to be a great support character with high survivability and very efficient heals. Not only should the Paladin serve any group well as a useful off-tank, if played well they can be used effectively as a main tank in smaller dungeons.

We don't intend for the Paladin to ever be as effective in tanking as the Warrior or even the Druid, which was designed specifically to be a replacement tank in the case that a Warrior wasn't present.

...one of our goals is to improve the Paladin's ability to main-tank since currently they are not as effective as we'd like them to be....We're looking to improve the Paladin's tanking abilities in such a way that players who take advantage of their class strengths can main-tank in instances capped at 5, 10, 15 and even 20 player instances...

...Players should be aware that damage caused by Holy Shield does in-fact cause 20% additional threat. This has been active since 1.9, but was undocumented. The tool-tip will be updated accordingly for patch 1.10...we are in the process of evaluating the amount of threat this spell generates.

Righteous Fury is not generating the correct amount of additional threat on all holy damage... Once 1.10 is live, this will be fixed and Righteous Fury will be a more effective threat generating ability.

We're taking a pass at all threat generating abilities, and it's likely that players will see some mathematical improvements to abilities over the course of the next few patches. In addition, we're in the process of reviewing the Protection tree with plans to make it more appealing for players choosing to follow the protection path.

Interesting stuff there. Nice read and I strongly appreciate Eyonix's investment in time for us.

As anonymous also mentioned, Eyonix actually said "we're in the process of reviewing the Protection tree with plans to make it more appealing for players choosing to follow the protection path". Yes, rub your eyes and read it again. Finally admission that Protection is severely underpowered compared to the other two. It's about time, because I have to say I was getting worried.

I'm sorry if I was strongly worded on this issue previously, but -- I just feel like Protection is a the son that never really gotten the attention he deserved because he was the middle child. It hasn't been the most desired tree, ever. All focus has always been on Retribution and Holy, and that's pretty apparent due to the situation where we are now, because we know where all the focus of 1.9 went.