I'm honestly not aware of any "Paladin design" in the FF series. It would be easier if we had such thing, not only for PLD, but many other jobs as well.

The problem here is exactly the representation of what the paladin should do as a holy knight. You are playing a Paladin with only one holy action, and it is a ranged magic spell at that. What's the point here? You are a Sword and Shield job and when you are not applying a single DoT over and over again, you are shooting white crystals... It is so simple and makes no sense.

All jobs have generic actions. They also have several mechanics that creates a sinergy between the generic action and the job. The PLD doesn't.