And what about when people aren't dying anymore? On farm, the only utility RDM retains is embolden, which isn't enough to justify its being not only the weakest caster, but the weakest dps. We're weaker than bard and provide none of the relevant utility.

Once you're farming and people stop dying, RDM's raise is useless. Having a job balanced purely on progression is what led to OPs problem. There's also no reason to take RDM into ultimate, its raise utility is beyond useless in there.