Quote Originally Posted by Cynfael View Post
Simple: DPS is the ultimate goal of every party, and we don't want the role that does the most damage wasting their GCDs on unnecessary healing actions, and we certainly don't want them getting cleaved, tank-busted, or forced to abandon positionals.

Healing isn't the kind of task that needs 100% uptime, and the healer role is extremely efficient at healing if played correctly, which means crazy downtime if only healing actions are used.
Then realistically why bother with healing classes at all and instead just go with support dps with healing support options? If healers are designed around healing but spend a large portion of their time not healing then most of the Job design goes to waste.

Personally I think healing gameplay is underdeveloped in FF14 and the healing potency of spells is too high. That is the reason healers get so much down time. They have too many fire and forget spells and to few mechanics which require constant maintenance.