FFXIV is in a Prime Position to Make Some Drastic Changes

[RiceisNice]

And given that, I'll never understand why 'you don't HAVE to use the mathematically best build unless you're a top raider' is an argument...

I might just be an outlier, but I played marksman hunter fairly frequently in WoW, even though Beastmaster and Survival are still better (though they're all competitive, really). Sorta like now how BRD is essentially better for most of the circumstances in raiding due to foe and RoD lowering the healer's miss rates, but I still play MCH over them because I like having my wildfire burst. The two functionally fufil the same role but do so somewhat differently. It just becomes a problem when you let that become the limiting factor to really add anything else to the game (such as new jobs or horizontal skill progression), and it makes for a very flat viewpoint for all of the players. People already exclude people for the silliest of reasons (such as excluding MCH/BRD during 3.0), and nothing's going to change that.

Just to rebute, the ultimate goal for the player in a game should be to have fun. Some find it fun to be competitive an shoot for the best, others find it fun to mess around with different gimmicks without being a total burden to the party.