Spoken like someone who has never done hardcore prog. Or even midcore for that matter.
Being able to see ahead is invaluable. It allows you to know what mitigation will be needed, whether healer oGCDs can be freely spent or to simply get ahead of the curve practicing additional mechanics all at once. DPS is very seldom needed because checks are usually forgiving, Abyssos notwithstanding. You also have to factor in BLM needing to know the whole fight before it can be truly successful, thus it's damage output for early progression won't be nearly as strong. There's a reason nearly every hardcore group runs RDM/SMN over BLM for week 1 progression.
