Upper tiers of an action (such as Fire II and Fire III) will be abolished.....

[Dreadnought]

I like the idea of streamlining the abilities, it keeps what's learned earlier still useful in later levels. I mean what Black Mage would still use Fire at level 50?

I'm going to skip mentioning the world famous MMORPG for once and reference an earlier Final Fantasy that actually did something somewhat similar, Final Fantasy II. While this example is somewhat different (you leveled the spell by using it a lot compared to it improving by a character level), there was only one form of a spell. Fire, Ice, Lightning, Cure all had only one tier that you could choose to improve.

What I think game companies are starting to realize is that they need to eliminate the tier model due to the weakness some abilities eventually gain as they are outsourced. Why add something that eventually becomes useless? The ability to improve one ability over time is an easier way to go about it.

Models now, hmm, different story.

im not trying to be rude but your point is literally moot because its looking like the elemental type will be the tiers just as they were in FFXI.
if you remember correctly Aero and Water spells were only useful until you got Thunder and Blizzard, then the others were practically non existant just as you say for low level spells.

the whole point of a low level spell is to coincide with your weakness as a low level character.
i prefer fire magic, i would like for my fire magic to look more powerful as i become more powerful in levels to coincide with my greater stats vurses when i was level 1

also, another clue would be reformed elemental wands that are currently in game. their levels are tiered according to which element.
the wind wand is level 24? the next one up is level 30 something (this is off the top of my head from when i looked at the market wards.) this coincides perfectly with aero generally going to be a weaker spell than all of the others because your going to learn that first.

im fine with streamlining spells, but dont make my level 50 Nuker cast the same exact fire spell effect as a beginner.