How Energy Drain and Aetherflow healing should work.

[Nethereal]

I might post a more detailed response later in the day.

While ED was intended as a dump skill for aetherflow not using ED is a complete dps loss, this is a fact not opinion. There's a reason dissipation is part of your opener, because it's a dps gain. If you find this to be a problem then it's honestly probably SE's fault for making the issue.
It's definitely not free if you have to choose one way or the other, it goes against the very definition of the word. Free dps would be attaching a DoT on Sacred Soil. And not gaining any of that dps is what's called a dps loss.
TBH I liked it more when ED was gone. It let me use my aetherflow for healing and not feel punished. Granted not having a dump was fairly annoying but it was meh.

This is probably my fault for not clarifying it enough but SCH is a healer specific case when I talk about being punished for healing due to how aetherflow interacts. When I talk about being punished I mean SCH, specifically aetherflow oGCD healing. It is the only healer that actively loses dps for properly using healing oGCDs.
Every healer has to be "punished" for GCD healing not much to talk about there. Though I'm finding SCH to be a little more fun so I'm still not decided.