They tried taxing ranged in HW by giving them a buff that increased their damage by 20% but turned their weapon skills from an instant cast into a cast-times 1.5s cast/2.5s recast (allowing them to at least move between casts). This was unpopular because it ruined the fluidity and freedom that came with playing a Ranged vs playing a caster. They reversed this in 4.0, which again made jobs like BRD very strong, as they not only had 100% uptime compared to melee, but they also had powerful DPS to boot.

If they implemented a range thing, you'd need to make some kinda UI change to indicate range/distance and that might not be received well. Maybe a function where they can't use their skills AT ALL in melee range (the button is disabled just like melees who are OUT of range).