Are there more tanks playing now?

[Launched]

Without a tank, the party will die.
Dead people don't clear stuff.

So? Someone can tank. It just won't be me, I'll be on DRG or WHM in dungeons.

Tanks still contribute heavily to the speed of a run. Tanks will still deal much more damage than a poor dps (or poor anything really). Tanks can still adjust and focus their playstyle to make runs faster and deal more damage.

Nowhere near as much as the other two roles now. Any average tank can grab a bunch of mobs now and hold aggro on them with 23-24k HP, even the pre-3.2 VIT ones. Meanwhile people that were used to STR got a straight nerf, closing the gap between them.

I think Launched's point is that if you have an average tank and an average DPS, having an above average DPS will result in higher gDPS contribution/speed than having an above average tank will. I think it depends on what your perception of the "average" is, though.

This, pretty much. Runs will go much faster if I go as DRG and outdamage most DPS players, or if I go as WHM and actually contribute DPS. Closing the gap in the 2 types of tank players the way 3.2 did just means that playing optimally doesn't offer much over being average. My 3.2 tank contribution is less than 3.1 (9 ilvls and 15 weapon ivls ago), never mind the extra DPS that actual DPS jobs and healers gained from new gear. Plus the new dungeons are just annoying with gating so you can expect almost every tank player to deal with them well enough.