The only people who argue that Protect should be prioritized at all in the lowest level dungeons are people who have no idea about how little it actually does. As a Scholar especially, I literally do not even need to heal those dungeons. If they wanna start up a fight because they can't do math, they don't deserve a clear.
I will never succumb to peer pressure, and if they want to kick me, that's fine, they can wait for another healer who might not even know how to play.