I'll never claim that Summoner can't be useful in a support role. It's just not as useful as, well, any other Support-class job in that role. It could be worse, and it's certainly less of a gap than it is with Damage, but Summoner is really no better than Red Mage in a pure support role (and Rdm is pretty bad in that role right now).

I don't want to hijack the thread too much, but honestly the entire BP system needs to be scrapped if Summoner wants to become a worthwhile job. It's just plain bad design.