I believe partners have not been worth having ever since the day the were released. In terms of utility, partners are pretty useless as they are now. Commerce Partners also became useless since now they don't provide the extra Commercing Space. Leveling them up is also very annoying since you can't even use Divine Link, and Logging in with partners is also not possible.... We are left with a nice and expensive 19k NX close-to-trash pet, they don't even hit hard, they can't be used in Mag Mell. If we're not even allowed to do most of these things, then there's hardly any point to having them other than the convenience of buying NPC store items. I think at this rate, even allowing them to use a bow would be nice, since they can help pin enemies down or Something, i mean anything would be nice. That would be the least I ask for, and as far as some cool stuff that might be considered "too much goodness", here's a list:
-Allow Transformation
-Allow Final Hit / Final Shot
-Allow Equipping a Bow
-Remove the Partner Unlock Potion requirement to equip/dequip gear/weapons
-Allow being Divine Linked
-Allow using in Mag Mell
-Allow Rebirth
-Allow a greater array of equipable weapons and items
-Make Likeability not drop (it sucks when you have to go AFK and come back and have to make your way back to 250+)
-Or: Make likeability a lower maximum value such as 50.
-Make more resilient to hunger or make the hunger/food system less manual and less tedious (like an auto-feed option / bag, or let them feed themselves)
: If they won't be allowed a Divine Link, then make it less difficult to get them to Max Level and make their max level higher than 200.
-Or: Allow logging in as a partner and doing partner missions to get to max level quickly

Other Cool Stuff:
-Allow them to fish at the Homestead Fishing Areas
-Give them a special skill the same way other pets do. For Example, dragons have their breath ability, and summon abilities, so partners should have a "Ultimate" type skill that may be similar to Final Hit .
-Increase their Summon Time.

I believe this would make partners worth the price that was paid to purchase them .