SMN - Why it is not a very interesting job and not a good upgrade from ACN

[Hawklaser]

*edit* max 1000 chars per post are silly

Once have the initial post, can edit it to above 1000 characters.

I read your whole post, and I won't comment on the rest of it because this is where we disagree and we can't get past that:

We will just have to agree to disagree then.

"Strong" iconic moves. I hope you mean "strong" in the visual sense.
They have never really been stronger than the character, barring XI. They're either an MP sponge(sustainability problem) or there's just better options.
Limited time really has nothing to do with the theme, and X didn't have a timer. XI didn't really have a timer at endgame, and Carbuncle especially didn't.
Earning use? Yeah.

Just going to lightly comment on this part, as will have to agree to disagree on what makes a Final Fantasy Summoner/Summon feel like one. The whole big 5 for me was from a thematic perspective, not a min/max perspective which is how you seem to look at it. When look at them thematically, the summons are indeed as strong or stronger than the character a majority of the time, from a min/max perspective however that goes away because only look at the raw numbers under the best of situations when have all options available. On the limited time, X did have their usage limited, just was done slightly differently due to them replacing your whole party instead of being a single one off ability. And even at end-game in XI, Summons were still limited in duration it was just offset by endgame gear outside of Astral Flow use.