Samurai?

[Zerathor]

Sam can do alright, but its in a similar position to blm: be really damn good at the job, or don't do it.

Other dps jobs have at least some kind of utility to bring to the table, in case they aren't extremely good at damage so they're given a bit of leeway. As a pure dps job that brings nothing unique to the table however, you NEED to be ahead of everyone (and by a good margin), or they will notice you fast.

[Megguido]

Sam can do alright, but its in a similar position to blm: be really damn good at the job, or don't do it.

Other dps jobs have at least some kind of utility to bring to the table, in case they aren't extremely good at damage so they're given a bit of leeway. As a pure dps job that brings nothing unique to the table however, you NEED to be ahead of everyone (and by a good margin), or they will notice you fast.

I kinda agree with that. If you're not playing SAM or BLM well enough, you don't have the utility to still help people.
Though very few jobs can bring something to the table while they suck, and I'm mostly thinking about BRD, which brings great utility other than a damage boost (Minne for insane Deployed Adlos, Mana song for healers...). A shitty NIN won't bring personal DPS nor raid DPS because if they can't play the job properly they might be also using TA, Shadewalker and Smokescreen badly.

NIN's DPS + TA is barely above a SAM's personal DPS (SAM is 600-800 DPS above NIN, depending on performance and at equal percentile). What makes NIN so good imo is Smokescreen and Shadewalker. Those two give a lot of leeway to us tanks in very healing heavy fights, so the WHM isn't taking hate.

Hardcore statics favor NIN over SAM for good reasons, because NIN allows for better levels of optimization (raid buffs synchro, less aggro combos on tank side). My concern is about all the statics being adamant about the fact that a NIN is required, where a samurai would be as valuable as a ninja in a "casual/midcore" environment.