Honestly this was probably a necessary change. AST had, legitimately, too much utility. It was overpowered. This change brings it more in line with the other two healers without taking away EVERYTHING that made it cool.

Yeah I'll miss playing neat little tricks with Ewer or giving a MNK an enhanced Spear for super chakra fighting action. But you know what I won't miss? I won't miss going an entire fight drawing nothing but Spires. I won't miss sitting there fishing for a dps card, ANY dps card. I won't miss using sleeve draw and picking up the three most useless things I could possibly imagine (who WOULDN'T Spread a Ewer after all, right?).

There are a couple different sides to look at here.