It would be nice not to be hated

[Zerathor]

Actually, it isn't. At 75% and above, Summoner beats Black Mage in Phantom Train, Guardian and God Kefka. They are essentially tied in Clown Kefka. Only against Chadornook does Black Mage pull ahead. At 95%, Black Mage does pull slightly ahead on some of those fights (only noticeably so in o6s). None of this account for Summoner's rDPS contribution, which is why it's popular. People are the higher levels are dropping Machinist for Summoner because the latter is simply that damn good. They certainly don't need a raise, though it's helpful.

This has remained a consistent problem for selfish DPS jobs. They simply aren't doing enough damage to compensate, though the buffs have somewhat helped. That said, perception won't change due to their one dimensional playstyle. Perhaps if the damage gap was worth gambling the player knows how to play either effectively, this may change.

if a job's contribution to rdps via buffs is less than 190, i don't really feel its worth factoring in. roughly around 75%, yeah smn can be ahead, as that is the range where blm has a harder difficulty curve to surpass. As far as what the job is fully capable of however, blm is superior in raw damage, including smn combined with their "raid contribution" damage. But yeah, blm really does deserve about 4% more dps to widen the gap, as any job with a raise should never even be able to compete on damage output to one who doesn't.

its also worth taking into consideration smn's in that skill range are far more likely to have a meta group for buffs compared to a blm which will take whichever party they can. so even if they seem ahead at 75%, i'd wager its due to having 1 or 2 more meta support jobs in the party to buff their damage.