Rejoice!

[Economizer]

Or poaching Dual Wield from NIN--is that really a sign of a job conception that was solid from the beginning?

Considering that for 1h weapons it is Dual Wield or be a shield using Paladin, not really.

The job trait is the only way for 1h jobs to get significant amounts of delay reduction, even if you happen to lose TP when you get high enough amounts of haste to start eating into the delay cap.

SE recently gave this statement about the possibility of giving Last Resort out to 1h jobs as well as 2h jobs, despite that same delay cap existing:

Currently, the development team plans to have the proposed Last Resort haste benefit only apply to two-handed weapons. The reason being is there are already a number of benefits that single-handed weapons posses such as dual wield, martial arts, etc.

Consider that the only way to even come close (and you won't even quite hit it) to the delay cap while single wielding a 1h weapon is to have a Dancer with fully merited Haste Samba, full gear haste, and full magic haste, and when stacked in a high buff environment with haste abilities, Dual Wield drains TP gain, you'll find that this statement is disappointingly insulting to 1h jobs, considering their first post regarding this was about buffing 1h weapons!

Also consider that you also get an extra hit on your weapon skill with DW, which significantly boosts damage for most weapon skills, and that you can equip another weapon with stats buffing your character (especially important when there are less then ten shields worth wearing in the game, and none of the non-Paladin ones even come close to buffs that weapons give), you can see why there are further nails in the coffin for any chance at not using DW unless you're a Paladin.

Shields don't and will probably never contribute to 1h weapons damage, and not having native DW means you can't sub WAR to help compensate for the attack problems against high level mobs. Shields also don't really contribute enough to defense unless your job is Paladin to have significant effects. So short of 1h weapons taking on the attributes of 2h weapons when single wielded, or shields at least auto-blocking AoE moves not targeted on the user to reduce some damage, it really is DW or go home.

Giving Dancer Dual Wield was probably one of the best design decisions SE could have made considering.

WHM hadn't had its highest level Regen spell poached from it yet, and effects like Adloquium,

Admittedly, while Scholar has its problems, having Regen spells, while being really crapily implemented, is an okay deal for White Mages.

I won't remotely try to argue with Scholar's implementation being a bit dirty, I don't know that I could. But Scholar taking the Regen crown isn't all that horrible.

Ever since AF3 sets came out, using Regen hasn't be an MP efficient way to heal anything. Cures are just too efficient for White Mages by comparison. Scholars on the other hand get all those nice stratagem charges to throw around. White Mages don't get much use out of Regen's main reason for casting (MP efficiency), whereas Scholars do (with proper strats, it can stand toe to toe with single target cure efficiency that WHM has). As a White Mage, I'd be more worried about Cure VI being a such a crappy spell at this point or even rather get worried about Scholars getting a castable light weather buff then I'd be worried about Regen spells in general.

That isn't to say White Mages don't have reason to have complaint. They still have a merit category wasted by Regen spells that will never match up to that of a Scholar's (to be fair, it isn't like any good White Mage was using it since AF3 pants though). This is further made a problem since Cleric's Briault augments Regen, as well as the Orison Mitts, and the Marduk's Tiara +1 (which as far as I know, SCH cannot wear either).

As a bit of a side point, Red Mages have even more reason to complain, because at this point they should have Regen III by now (and if you really think about it, no real reason for them not to have Regen IV, considering there is nothing WHM would really be losing).