It's because Bard didn't exist when XIV first launched. We only had classes. Archer levels on it's own. Job crystals were introduced later as a sort of specialization. You could technically still play as Archer and use cross class skills for flexibility, or you could play Bard and become more support focused with no cross-class.

By design, Bard was not created as a "Bard with a bow". It's an Archer that later learned to use songs to support their party members.

When 1.0 ended and ARR was released, the same class/job combination carried over. It isn't the Bard you're comparing it to because it was born as an Archer first.

Over time, SE's obsession with homogenization has caused jobs and classes to lose some of their uniqueness in that they just exist for the sole purpose of their role, in this case DPS. It isn't lazy design, it's just been streamlined from the original playstyle when it was introduced under this name.