But it's a sword.

[Duelle]

Having both pets and trances fulfills both methods that Summoning has been interpreted as throughout the series, as such both fit fine within the job.

Except that at this point pets have been abandoned in favor of trances. You're leaving a system that is obsolete in terms of gameplay because...reasons?

You clearly have not played any game that has Mystic Knight in it (it is a rare job, but hey FFXIV added a job used by one character in one game before!). Mystic Knight does in fact have utility in two of the games it appears in, FFV (Where it premeired) and Bravely Default. Both games let you apply Status Magic to the attack. And, in fact, in FFV was the most reliable method of inflicting said statuses.

By casting spells through swords (in V, as I never played Bravely Default). If you limited RDM to sword-casting, removed all ranged options and removed white magic as a whole, then you can start comparing it to Mystic Knight.

Calling Red Mage a turret in a game that has Black Mage in it is hilarious. Red Mage is, in fact, the most mobile spellcasting job in the game.

As I've said elsewhere, having an easier time dodging telegraphs does not negate the fact that you're a turret. The same was true for BRD when Wanderer's Minuet turned the job into Bow Mage.

Not really, no.

I'll point to Enspells and the logical conclusion that idea reaches. I can list some mechanics that tie both melee and magic to help illustrate where that idea leads, if you'd like.

A jack of all trades job that could use a lot of different kinds of magic as well as basic melee competence.

And we know how successful classes like that are in trinity MMOs (read: they're not).

It's always been designed primarily as a spell-caster. It's melee abilities exist to balance out the fact that it has lower MP and power than the specialist mage jobs, allowing it to contribute to the party without using resources.

Again, console FF limitations. By design the facets of the job were segregated because turn-based combat could do nothing to tie them together in a way to help the job stand out. Also why the player ends up choosing to use the job in a way they get the most bang for their buck (read: casting spells).

Moving past your use of the "this is how it was in older FFs" argument, I'm going to have to ask if you have played MMOs that had hybrid classes before. Not the ones with bullshit like "this class is a hybrid but you're a mezzer/healer/buffbot at endgame", but classes with actual mechanics that tied different aspects of the class together. Because that's what I expected out of RDM, instead of what we got.