Rose tinted nostalgia seems to rule the image of Summoners.

Summoner design in XI was not the best. Yes you had a variety of summons but really only two of the summons had ability worth burning the 1 min cooldown pact for. I'm talking 75 cap as that was as far as i got in XI. Only carbuncle at the time was a viable pet u could keep out with carby mitts and light staff...the rest had their moment before being sent away...and even then you used titan for stoneskin-ga, Garuda for Predator strikes (hastega was so weak) and the rest...were not that useful except using their en-spellga for lulz.

Summoners in past FF games had other abilites (white magic or black magic usually) to bring utility alongside their summoning because by itself, summoning was a 1 trick pony. You can't simply have summoners in XIV call their primal, do their attack and then just twiddle their thumbs. Since the healing role was taken by SCH, SMN needed something to do...