Pessimistick beat me to the punch! Mecan, that's a lengthy post but I can't really get behind much of anything you said. You, yourself, said that BLMs are "creatures of situation" (whatever that means). So, with that said, isn't it almost always the case that AoE situations demand burst damage? Take Turn 4, phase 4 for example. You have exactly 1 minute to kill two Rooks and four spiders before a Dreadnaught, Knight and Soldier drop on your face. Further, take any dungeon run as an example. Do you think any AoE pull will last long enough to go through some lengthy AoE rotation? No. Use Convert. Do the burst. Blow 'em up. End the fight.