All the merit system really did was promote the cookie cutter mentality more so than specialization. If you wanted to be the best at X job, you best have Y! That kind of thing. Some might be okay with that, but I'm not really for arbitrary doors being slammed in the faces of those capable of otherwise jumping through the hoops over a reasonable period time. Even with the old merits, I doubt anyone would argue against the ability to max everything since they'd be helpful. It's just, for now, some things are just way more helpful than others. This situation basically risks repeating itself as we find out more about the WS, nevermind the limited situations where a WHM, RDM, SMN, BLM, SCH, or BRD would find themselves in a position to use a WS, thus making investing in their respective skills less appealing even if they are improvements to older options.

As I noted in the general board, I'd rather see all WS capable of being unlocked and maxed at 10 > 20 > 30 > 30 > 30 point spread. That's 120 merit points per WS, at the very least 4 trips to town with a 30 cap on merits. 1680 merits if someone wanted them all. That's a hell of a lot of time for casual players who may be lucky to see an Abyssea party breaking 7 merits an hour. On the other hand, they'd still have the option to focus on their primary jobs while more versatile players with more time on their hands can have their own productive time sinks. Otherwise, people will be sitting on capped merits again pretty soon.