Is Blm gonna be the only accepted range option now? :(

[CKNovel]

My Bard is still very viable. People are freaking out too much. Our dps isn't that bad...it's still pretty much on par with where it's always been.

In fact, you are right!
However it's on par with Stormblood, back then we had:

Hypercharge, Foe's Requiem, Palisade, Dismantle, Refresh

Ranged DPS had much more support to justify the taxes on the low DPS which is not the case in SHB where ranged have Samba/Tactician but the Casters Addle is the same, if not better. As you said so well, it's not all about Raid DPS, it's also about mitigation and refreshing other's resources.

EDIT: I indeed forgot the Bard 2% permanent crit passive which made the job strong as hell
But let's never forget Dismantle, it was incredibly strong, 10% damage reduced from the target every 60s, it's almost available for every Earthen Fury in E4S P2&P3!