Have you tried Winston? It obviously depends what you're facing, but I've had pretty great results (even as someone just picking him up recently) when the other team doesn't want to play tanks either so you get a bunch of genjis/tracers/sombras/widows/hanzo/trendy dps heroes/all the healers. If Pharah works for you that's great, I just know I was in your spot and seem to have found an easy solution (for me).
Yeah this is exactly what I was going through, people just don't have the balls to go in, which is why I went for tank.