Your right, so this argument is basically settled.
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You're able to "handwave" away that your retainer is a WHM on player convenience but not for squadron members? Their adventures are quite non-canon as far as I know as well considering that the stories that play while you do your squad runs of course cannot be canon since you've run those adventures already. I don't see any reason it cannot be done or shouldn't be done.
It sounds like you meant to quote my earlier reply, because the post you actually quoted is less to your rebuttal.
Retainers get jobs because we get gear that is job-specific, and if the retainers don't get jobs, then we can't give them some of our gear when we're done with it. Retainer jobs exist strictly for the convenience of the player.
Squadron members don't have that same need. Without jobs, they can still be given (and in some cases, already have been given) abilities that a player cannot use as the same class and level. So they don't need jobs.
That's because in the grand context of the game, the retainers don't exist. They're a prop, not a player. Nobody else can see your retainer unless you own a house and park them outside it. You can't take them into dungeons.
The Squadron, other players can't see either, but unlike the retainers, the characters you recruit are all "existing" people in the game, and you can take them into dungeons.
SE just painted themselves into a corner with now classes/jobs work. They either need to retrofit a reason to give them a job stone, or they need to create a precursor class for Astrologian, Machinist, Red Mage, Dark Knight, and Samurai
Or they can bend things just a little. The entire purpose of the Class -> Job is a throw back to Wizardry that FF1 used up to FF5. Where in Wizardry it let you either do a full on upgrade of the base class, or you could pick a job that was a merger of two classes.
I don't expect the squadron to ever be playable on the field, nor do I expect them to be brought into 8-player trials or raids. So that means they should be able to have any job YOU do not have.
The most basic, and probably cynical, reason is probably because this won't improve performance at all.
Squadron AIs seem to operate on an VERY simple AI Roulette with just a few modifiers like healers prioritizing esuna way too much or melee DPS missing 3 GCDs just to land a positional. I can easily see MNKs formshifting at random. Squadrons also lack cooldowns for whatever reason, and it may not seem obvious now, but it'll be noticeable by everyone when a WHM uses assize every 15 seconds. Personally my favorite was my WAR who kept alive at 1 HP for 20 seconds by spamming holmgang.
I love doing the squadron dungeon runs. I believe squadrons should be 1. elevated to JOB status since they are max level to 60 & have level 60 abilities. 2. Give them some level 60 dungeons. There several level 60 dungeons that are not mechanic heavy that the squadron can get through. I took my squadrons through all the dungeons they have given them so far.