You can look WM and BRD from this perspective.

[AdamFyi]

Their job is to bolster their party. They are not suppose to be top tier damage dealers, never was.

They are free to remove Wanderer's Minuet as they see fit, but don't come crying saying that Bards are being excluded from content if they actually did. Machinists can do the support role pretty well, and they do pretty good damage to boot. :u

Could of given us a Haste/Party Defense song [the current as an AoE], and a damage one.

Due to the changes to how Haste-type buffs work with the expansion, they could give about 5% at best. Plus, Selene already fills in that role, and Scholars are already pretty sought for. Party mitigation can already be filled in by some roles. Dragon Kick, Sacred Soil, and Virus are notable examples. Even though they have quite low percentages, they have very strong effects. Adding more is just asking for trouble. :n

Edit:

I was in a dungeon today (Sohm Al) where the tank left after the first pull. We completed the entire dungeon w/o ever getting another one and the WHM -still- never needed ballad. And this was just a random DF group.

I call BS, until you have some proof to show for that. Mainly because most of the bosses there have high-hitting cleaves that absolutely wreck non-tanks. It may be possible, but I really doubt that anyone can manage to beat the final boss without a tank. Unless you call up Titan-Egi, then yes, it's possible. So correct me if it was a Titan-Egi. Still needs proof though. @_@