Should healers now be allowed to play how they choose to play?

[craized]

yes my PLD is level 57, but were discussing all content at all levels here. so my point is valid. and even if i haven't hit max level and started on end game i can extrapolate, because i know for instance that if you spam flash you will quickly run out of power and lose agro. by following your usual rotation you have an easier time with agro.

but the point (even though people seem to be going off on all kinds of tangents) im really trying to get across is: its not the same thing AT ALL. not my a margin.
you CANT heal the group via Damage.
you CAN retain agro via Damage.
tanks don't need to change up from their usual rotations in order to dps, because dps is incorporated into their rotation.
healers need to swap back and forth between different spell sets on different targets, not to mention the 5 second CD on cleric stance which can easily cause all kinds of issues on its own if mistimed.
it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out the difference.

[Dement]

yes my PLD is level 57, but were discussing all content at all levels here. so my point is valid. and even if i haven't hit max level and started on end game i can extrapolate, because i know for instance that if you spam flash you will quickly run out of power and lose agro. by following your usual rotation you have an easier time with agro.

but the point (even though people seem to be going off on all kinds of tangents) im really trying to get across is: its not the same thing AT ALL. not my a margin.
you CANT heal the group via Damage.
you CAN retain agro via Damage.
tanks don't need to change up from their usual rotations in order to dps, because dps is incorporated into their rotation.
healers need to swap back and forth between different spell sets on different targets, not to mention the 5 second CD on cleric stance which can easily cause all kinds of issues on its own if mistimed.
it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out the difference.

DPSing as a healer is different at different levels of content. It's much more difficult to Healer DPS in level sync'd content than it is in non-sync'd so endgame dungeons you have ridiculously overgeared tanks and healers where the healer literally doesn't have to heal more than a handful of times.

As to your points:

Damage is a form of mitigation. The quicker things die the less damage they do the less healing required.
Tank damage in tank stance using enmity combo is the baseline. Yes you're doing damage but that damage was going to be done no matter what as the very basics of your job, no one believes this to be the equivalent of "tank DPS"
To actually do "tank DPS" above your baseline - tanks need to use different skills and in the case of PLD/DRK entirely different rotations; in the case of WAR it manifests as burning your defensive GCDs for abandon stacks which can have its own risk/rewards. Furthermore, this is performed without the benefit of enmity multipliers from tank stance and again with PLD/DRK the DPS combos do not generate the same enmity as the enmity combo.
Cleric Stance is a 5 second cooldown oGCD with no resource requirements. PLD/DRK has resource requirements to change stances and must be used as part of the GCD. WAR has a 10 second cooldown to swap stances... which can easily cause all kinds of issues on its own if mistimed due to aggro loss from geared DPS or overhealing healers.

The differences aren't nearly as much as you want to make them out to be.

[craized]

to dement: the difference is as different as one role to another and fundamental in nature no matter how you may try to portray it.