Geomancer

[Archwizard]

-snip-

I said they're arbitrary in 14, and I explicitly mentioned BLM as one of the exceptions. In previous entries the distinction of elements allowed you to exploit elemental weaknesses in the opponent, which do not exist in 14 (since ARR anyway); BLM had to be rewritten such that the elements themselves had a practical distinction via the AF/UI Phases, because it is a damage job and control of those elements is intrinsic to its identity.
However, healers generally don't complicate their rotations with such considerations; they get a DoT, an AoE, and a filler attack. Judging by spells like Combust and Art of War, filling the gap seems more important than the aesthetic.

If I must identify it, I would say it's a Hasty Generalization (or possibly Slothful Induction? It's a bit hazy between the two) to say that "They removed X from Y, therefore they plan to add X to Z." Similarly, taking an event and ascribing a purpose without evidence is the definition of a Causal Fallacy, not to mention an attempt at mind-reading.
The argument that I must be using logical fallacies as a stand-in because you did not recognize said statement as one ("I don't see it, so it must not be true") would also be an example of Personal Incredulity Fallacy, since you asked.

I'm not trying to say they "don't want anyone to have wind/earth/water magic" -- and indeed, SMN and RDM have wind and earth, NIN has water, and CNJ hasn't actually lost earth or wind. Generally that is my standard response to arguments like "They took time manipulation away from AST, therefore they're adding Time Mage," and I recognize that you used the same form of reasoning here. The emphasis was to remind these forums in general that no, one doesn't mean the other.
With regards to WHM specifically, you'll note that my statement ended with "or they don't care enough to keep it," because as I said before, elements have no distinction to a healer anyway so there is no practical reason to preserve them.

If I were to argue a "reason" to swap to Holy, then something else worth considering is that the JPN side of the game also uses the suffixed naming convention of spells from newer games, "-ra" and "-ga". There's already no consistent suffix for the fourth spell in a series ("-za" and "-ja" have both been used), and adding a fifth rank of a spell (to a healer, no less, when even BLM caps out at 4) is unheard of since that convention was introduced.
Not to mention it would be visually boring to mindlessly throw rocks for the fourth expansion in a row and an underwhelming use of "Quake".
But again, that would be an exercise in mind-reading and ascribing a cause to an event.

(Oh, and telling others to provide an alternative reason to disprove you edges on Burden of Proof, while we're at it.)