Pal is not a DPS tank

[hakurou46]

PLD does have less DPS potential than other tanks, but it can still put out respectable numbers. If you're getting flak, it's not because you're on PLD. It's because your numbers aren't up to snuff.

While I agree that PLD DPS is lower than other tanks (since it IS), quite a lot of players bash on PLD for playing PLD over "a real tank". I mained PLD from 2.1 to 3.1. I've got something like 2000 hours on that class. I would know that it's not always about numbers - people just like to bash on it.