pld can be strong but the vast majority of ppl playing pld are terrible, and that makes ppl think paladins are terrible. If you are worried about queue times the tank slot probably won't be a whole lot better than ranged dps since mrd is so strong there is a lot of them queueing.

you don't get the same bonus duo vs solo, duo is like a 20% bonus to xp and marks where solo is 100% bonus. As it is right now, solo is probably the fastest way to level and accrue marks.

in the 40/30 bracket morale doesn't work, neither do the materia slots so wearing the pvp gear here as opposed to pve gear actually puts you at a disadvantage because in pvp gear you will have secondary stats dedicated to morale (which is useless in 30-40) and not the other secondary stats (crit,det,etc.).