Other healers thoughts

I've been a long time player of all things final fantasy over the years. I just returned to FFXIV after a few years off. Before I was maining WHM. I have all jobs unlocked and everything except for the most recent 3 (gunbreaker, dancer, blue mage) leveled up to at least lvl 30. I've tried dancer and really enjoy it, but I always return to a heal as my main. I had decided to give AST a try instead of WHM and began working on mouseover macros for my heals and getting the UI setup again.
I'd like to know other healers thoughts on healing via buttons vs mouseover macros. I am familiar with the button queue difference between the two. But, setting up my hotbars I've come to realize just how much freaking button bloat this game has and started to think trying to heal with mouseover macros may be a wasted effort. So what are your thoughts and insights?

I wouldn't use macros for your skills, especially on AST. There's 2 skills I have macro'd on SCH and that's it for my healers, and even those I rarely use unless I'm single weaving them. Macro delays will screw you out of a heal when you need it

Generally, you always want to press your buttons instead of using macros. It’s just faster to target someone directly instead of trying to macro target. If you’re on a keyboard, you can use F1-F8 to instantly target party members (assuming you have the default keybinds). There are some exceptions to this though. I have a few macros set up specifically for card targeting (controller player here), and also have one macro for each ground circle, like Soil and Star, that lets me drop it under my current target or gives me the option to manually place it.

I personally use mouseover macros for my single target heals/buffs. There isn't much harm in using them and it's more convenient for me. I otherwise stay away from macros.

If you think AST has button bloat, wait until you try Gunbreaker.

Never macro GCDs, rarely macro oGCDs
When you do macro oGCDs, spam the line to ensure it isn't lost in another action's animation lock

The only macros I'd recommend are:
A Sprint-spam macro, as it doesn't queue properly anyway
Sacred Soil/Asylum <t> to be used alongside unmacroed Soil/Asylum. I find it more consistent than manual placing, but you still might need to manually place sometimes.

The only Maco I use are for Asylum / Earthly Star / Sacred Soil to plant them on a target instead of the ground marker.
Really saves me time on controller.
Otherwise no macros.