Apparently I'm distracting (and not the good kind)

[ChaozK]

Or maybe they halved the potency so people would use Fire II???

Doubt it as the same patch that nerfed it also made it available as a cross class skill, so surely they had SMN and SCH in mind when they nerfed it (WHM has Holy). It was made a cross skill as a they removed lightning because it was too op for SMN at the time.