Not the intended use: Fighting initiate Unarmed fighting on a monk

[stoutstien]

Just to make sure I follow:

Take v.human Fighting Initiate: Unarmed, which improves your damage output from 1-3, and maybe to 7 or 11 for Open Hand, Drunken Master, Mercy, and Astral Self.
If Shadow (or in a heavy-obscurement party), trade for blind fighting at 4 (and compare to Alert; both have advantages).
If Kensei, trade for Archery at 4.
Otherwise, it's not clear what remaining FS was worth the opportunity cost of taking a better feat as v.human.

Yes?

Aside: while Unarmed is made less exciting by the Tasha's optional features, the Dueling fighting style gets *better* with Ki-Fueled Attack once Martial Arts catches up with your versatile weapon (since you'll often get a Dueling BA attack).

That about sums it up.

For ranged monks in general I would say Archery is a nice perk lv 1-20 but not really vital. More of a feel good option because missing attacks is never fun and the +2 works really work with focused aim.