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Amaterasu from Okami is my runesmith class fantasy. The way you have to literally paint different symbols in that game is super fun and I feel like this more martial interpretation focused on specific symbols is a bit closer to that than just taking Druid or Cleric.
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I imagine any class if well done can simulate multiple fantasies to various degrees.
For me the class fantasy for runesmith is the runes and the language
I'd like more class features revolving around language.
To me the runesmith immediately hit me with two big concepts
The first is “magical craftsperson” like somone who makes and enchants magic items and is good enough that they can use the empowering runes on the fly to strengthen themselves and allies, the class has some flavor abilities and feats that give it this vibe and the name screams it
The second is the stuff OP talked about, lots of writing things
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Miroku, the monk from Inuyasha. Uses ofuda to blast, seal, & debuff much like aforementioned characters.
The Warded Man, from novel, unarmed warrior empowered by runes drawn directly on his skin (whereas most have them on items). They represent most of his ability, bringing him up to par with his demon enemies (who few mortals can survive against, much less fight).
Dr. Strange & friends when making those glowing-glyph-bucklers and more, though once off a surface, runes seem less rune-ish and more special effects.
Marvel's rune magic & that arc when some characters were covered in runes that scaled them up to boss level (IIRC).
Mostly I think of Scandinavian lore; etching runes into one's equipment, at portals/landmarks, on stones perhaps in patterns or held up high w/ prayers making them glow, runes sketched into dirt, or scarred/seared onto flesh.
I do not imagine just drawing a rune w/ the speed of a blade onto a moving enemy (especially with the different physiology of some PF monsters). That seems absurd, though Paizo could rectify by reflavoring the rune as adjacent/under the target and moving where they do, or the Runesmith drawing (or maybe calling) the rune then applying it.
Rise of the Return of the Runesmith, or, the lack thereof. I feel like Karzoug et al would be disappointed.
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Forgive me if this comes as a bit of a tangent.
Once, when trying to adapt a couple setting-agnostic character concepts into the Lost Omens milieu for a friend and I to play a freeform version of Carrion Crown, I ended up putting a lot of thought into runes as a basis for magic.
One of the characters, Izzy, was an artificer who could reasonably be compared to a Runesmith. She came from a setting where magic was a skill anyone could use, and discipline at spellcraft was valued in any mage, but she channelled more the 'brilliant but lazy' trope obsessed with 'natural magic', and preferred to design elaborate spell forms over drilling the basics. Consequently, she took what was seen as a crutch technique--inscribing ready-made runes--and took it to an extreme, adding runes to her armour to shield her, etc.
For this rp, I borrowed the idea that the runes that grant weapons their bonuses are the external manifestations of a more elaborate but largely invisible substructure or matrix that a craftsfolk trained in reading runes could 'unpack' and tweak, and is bound to the physical rune (thus, a rune could be transferred despite technically being an inscription because this substructure is what is actually being moved). Izzy was an artisan who could craft magic items with her knowledge of runes, and also carried herself more specialized, custom magical gear that she could power with her own magic, or 'overclock' to force it beyond design parameters.
Izzy leans more on the 'artificer' idea, with specific magic gear, but her magic side, with the ability to draw rune in combat, does bear some resemblence to the Runesmith, especially as a supplement for her physical combat skills.
Another character, Miki, could most accurately be described as a Kitsune Pyrokineticist. Since this was before the 2e kineticist reveal, I borrowed this same theory of rune magic and decided that kineticists are what happens when a person, through unknown means, has a rune inscribed directly into their spirit. In essence, Miki had a rune meaning 'fire' inscribed into her being, and because it was so fundamentally entwined with her person, she could command fire at will.
A third character, Lavender, was a living doll witch (yet another character that has since been made fully playable in 2e, I love this game), and naturally had more traditional spellcasting. If you've been following along, it probably comes as no surprise to you that, following the same theory of rune-based magic, I attributed all forms of spellcasting to the ability to manifest and discharge runes. Different kinds of spellcasting worked in different ways (wizards wrote complicated rune formulas from scratch into their brain, clerics had these rune patterns bestowed upon them by their god, sorcerers figured out a limited handful of tricks they could just kind of 'do' without necessarily being able to alter the runes) but all of them shared a basic fundamental that they would wind up a bunch of magical energy during preparations and then release it through the runes, and then the rune's structure would collapse, so they'd have to prepare more the next day (or just manifest another if they were spontaneous--you know how it is).
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In short, Runesmith reminds me of an idea I once had for runes to be the fundamental basis of all magic, and different types of magic-wielder interacted in them in different ways, from spellcasters who wrote out specific instructions for the magic, to kineticsts who had free reign over a specific rune, to artificers and craftsfolk, who could make custom magic item runes--all operating with the assumption that the physical appearance of the rune is just the anchor point for a matrix coded deep into the metaphysical space within the rune.
I admit I don't have a specific vision for how I want a rune-wielding class to work, but operating from the name "Runesmith" I would expect it to draw runes in combat, have the ability to etch their equipment with runes, and of course craft magical tools. The current Runesmith does all of these things quite effectively (even if 'crafting magical items' is necessarily a relatively niche portion of the game that can't always show up as an interactive system) and the current Runesmith seems to achieve all of those things--although certainly with room for improvement!
If there was one runic magic 'look' I'd feel was missing, it's indeed the paper charm/fulu vibe of throwing paper slips with runes--not the least of which reason being that I finally finished the Owl House finale. Perhaps like Runesinger, this would fit best as a variant aesthetic for sketching, since I don't see a whole lot that would distinguish throwing papers and tracing runes on the spot, especially if we assume the fulu are created in the same action as the attack. Throwing fulu that burn their runes onto a foe sounds like a lovely way to flavour a Runesmith's trace activity, and I can imagine it would be fun to have some kind of mechanical effect one could opt into to support that look.
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D&D 4e had both an iteration of that game's Artificer that was all about temporary infusions of magic into items and a unique class called Invoker who commanded a few words of the divine language that shaped reality at the dawn of time. The fun of the Runesmith is somewhere in the middle of these: magic rooted in both a really tangible physicality and in some some kind of cosmic truth.
