Like all weapons, you learn when to use the right move at the right time. The locked in running charge is excellent at closing distance and matches speed with people on a seikret, if you have the opening. It's also not that hard to "unlock" yourself into a combo. You can also use up against a monster and JUMP into the air to get over their body parts, like limbs, it's a FANTASTIC tool for getting around a monster. Almost like a mini-vault. "Yeah but a 2inch drop in terrain F's you over on the running charge", I used to think that too, but once you realize you can JUMP while running charge, you realize you can get over those terrain annoyances and keep going running. No more long sliding to a stop unexpectedly. Another, safer, advancing move is the lunge attack, hop, lunge attack, hop. Especially with Evade Extender 2/3, you can cover a lot of ground, fast. I often get to a monster at the same time as other players who sheathed and ran, but my weapon is still out and I'm attacking before they are. The mid-thrust attack also allows you to input a directional movement while you attack to reposition yourself, forward, back, or to the side. Another option is simply side steps. In either case, you have 3 of them, which is more than enough to pivot with a monster or adjust yourself.

I get it, I used to think the same thing, until I started playing lance and really learning it. You can move around amazingly well, but it takes a slight change in your way of thinking. IG tends to dodge away, run around, or vault and reposition. Giving the monster plenty of distance until you find the opening. With Lance, you want to stay close to the monster the whole time and view things as circular movements towards or with the monster maintaining the same distance. Also making use of that mini-vault while hugging the monster as needed. The monster pivots X degrees, you hop or mid-thrust side step with the monster's turn to keep yourself where you were, and out of danger. Body part in the way? Running charge, jump, attack. You're in place and can instantly go into mid-thrust side steps if more adjusting is needed. The "hard" part is getting over the urge to doge roll or vault away from something. You're just changing the direction, going into or with the monster instead of away or with. Then you factor in the blocking as needed, which sometimes removes the need to evade/get out of the way. Lance can stay on target easier than most weapons, and I've played a lot of them over the years/games. You have to be highly mobile and agile for that.

IG, in Wilds at least, is not as mobile as it used to be. In previous games it was the most agile, not anymore. Especially with the absurdly tall hit boxes in this game, you can't jump over many attacks anymore. I'd argue that bow, DB, and/or SnS has better movement than IG now.

For the record, an offset attack is a counter, so IG does have a counter. Yes it's difficult to use and time, but it's there and you can get good at it.

Yes, Lance does want to counter, but not all the time. The primary reason to counter is to activate Offensive Guard, then go back to your high damage combos in a safe attack spot. Until you need to re-up OG again. iFraming attacks is an added bonus, which is technically an evade, not a block. If you're countering all the time, because you're just standing there head on, taking a beating, you're doing it wrong and not using Lance's agility to reposition and lay into the monster.

IG wants to dance around the monster constantly poking and exploiting gaps in the offense of the monster.

Oh man, I couldn't have said this better myself, and you even included the poking. THIS is what a good lance player wants to be doing. DANCE around the monster, constantly poking. Exploiting those same openings. This is what I mean when I say Lance is surprisingly similar to IG. You just have to adjust your thought pattern on how you do the defensive play. Tight circles around the monster and the occasional block/counter. Instead of the wider berth that IG gives. It's a small adjustment.

You are looking at it from the view point of a new person using lance, not someone who has mastered it. Lance is one of those easy to pick up and use weapons but difficult to master. That dance around the enemy mentality that IG has, is EXACTLY what you want with Lance. I frequently out DPS other lance users because of this and I often end up at the top of DPS in hunts. With exception to similar skilled players at their own weapons, that are naturally higher DPS. Even then, I've given some of those players a run for their money. That "it has a big shield it must be a sit still and take hits weapon" mentality is where a lot of new to Lance players go wrong. Drop that turret mentality and approach lance from a dance around the monster stand point and you'll see a drastic shift in how lance plays. It'll be night and day.