i want to point something interesting that some people seems to ignore:
1) not everyone have a clear vision of the stats, nor access to the materia VI for get the top of the tops.
2) melee will always be infront of ranged that like this, because get in melee for do damage is more risky than ranged.
3) the difference of damage is not extrem, plus blm have an insane burst still. what a rdm can't compare exept when he get in melee burst. (not very often)
4) finally, red mage for get his burst, need to be in melee... not blm.

the utility is interesting, because far from be exeptional, since it only boost physical damage of the other member of the team, only the red mage get a boost of magic. plus it decay fairly fast. then if your team don't have potent melee... it have no real effect.