[dev1210] Why Not Merit Weaponskills ??

[Alhanelem]

I don't need an arbitrary limit to force me to make decisions

It's not really arbitrary, it makes plenty of sense. Nuclear scientests typically aren't the best football players, while garbage collectors typically aren't the best CEOs. You can't be the best at everything in real life, therefore it is not such a wild stretch, even in a fantasy game. FFXI is already very generous as far as how good it lets you be at everything. None of the weaponskill merits render a job unplayable in lacking one the job can use. The main stat merits don't add enough to dramatically change anything. The HP/MP merits don't dramatically change anything. (Most) job specific merits are not really essential to the job. Merits are additions, bonuses. Having to choose them does not mean you won't be able to play this job or that job. Especially since you can't see other people's merits, you're not going to get kicked out of a party if you, for instance, spent most of your attribute points on STR then go play black mage. Is it minmax optimal? No. Can you still clear content with the job? Yes.

Seeing everybody having to merit the exact same weapon skills makes me feel safer, more secure, and somehow more unique.

If that's what actually happened, your post would have some merit. But as it stands, not everybody merits the same things for their job, not everyone merits the same weapon skills, not everyone allocates their HP/MP the same, etc. So yes, you are more unique as a result of the current design of the merit system than you would be if it was changed the way everyone here is begging for it to be.