Split Machinist to Gunner and Engineer

[Seraphor]

Nono, I don't mean as SCH/SMN, that is a mistake that should not be repeated.
However you pointed not seeing Paladins wielding Rapieds or Samurai using great sword (With glam DRK can """use""" a big Katana) and that's the same with guns.
There is many different guns, MCH uses one-hand guns but a Gunner could use two guns or a Musket.

And I'm a bit saddened to read that there is not enough Gunner substance.
Rest in peace Mustadio and his gameplay heavily around guns, Barret and his hand that is a machine gun, Laguna and Irvine, Yuna from FFX-2...
Mustadio has aiming abilities.
Barret has big shots. But also new abilities in FF7R.
Irvine is more based around his ammo uses and most ammos are unique and provide different effects.
Yuna has a lot of abilities.



On top of that, a Gunner job could also switch between weapons like stances.

MCH has a lot of substance, we don't even have all the Machinery yet.
The current MCH kit is a good base, the main problem is that it's a bit empty and you can feel it's half the rework as Flamethrower still exists.
Now MCH also summons bot and that can allows a wide path to take.
Gunplay is already weak on MCH anyway!

The difference is jobs in every other Final Fantasy have all been far shallower.
White Mage just had healing skills and had no Stone or Assize or Lilies, Black Mage just used elemental spells with no Enochian or Swiftcast or Astral fire, etc. because you would use a party of characters and effectively be combining multiple jobs into your set up.

'Mustadio and his gameplay revolving heavily around guns' is almost completely represented within just the Physical ranged role skills, Leg Graze, etc.
Barret and Irvine simply used attacks that used a gun, this is almost completely represented by Machinist's 1-2-3 combo, with things like Hot shot, Ricochet, Gauss round etc. filling out the gaps. Admittedly the old ammo system gave it more 'gun identity' but there's still not enough there to base an entirely separate job around.

Then you mention how gunner could switch between weapons like stances... so it would be a... machinist... using different machines?

Simply 'shooting a gun' isn't enough of a job identity on it's own, that's WHY Machinist has different... machines.
Machinist IS the Gunner class. Mustadio was a Machinist, Balthier was by design a Machinist and the Machinist class in TZA is just a Gunner in all but name. Machinist=Gunner.
By contrast, all of the 'machines' it uses that aren't guns, actually come from characters that were never called 'Machinist's, Edgar and Prompto specifically.

Adding a 'Gunner' class at this point, would be like adding a 'Ronin' class that uses Katana, but 'in a different way'.

The only viable avenue I see for them to implement another gun-wielding job, is as a Healer, like Chemist.

[Rosenstrauch]

By contrast, all of the 'machines' it uses that aren't guns, actually come from characters that were never called 'Machinist's, Edgar and Prompto specifically.

This is actually incorrect. In the versions of Final Fantasy 6 that assign Job names to the various characters, Edgar's Job is in fact "Machinist". I imagine that's why the Machinist Job in this game uses so many of his tools specifically.