A Simple and Easy Solution to the Bard Identity Debate

[Cetonis]

I think you're talking about something rather different. Talking about how balanced it is as a job isn't really related to the job identity. The topic, at least to me, read as a discussion about the latter (aesthetic changes really only could be seen as a job identity thing to me), not the former.

No, it's a refutation of this:

If they did we wouldn't have people still requesting Bard and Ranger, and have been since 2.0 launched.

That's simply not true. Sure there was probably someone out there complaining at any given time, but it was never a regular source of complaint until Shadowbringers. The people complaining now were content, even if not thrilled, with the state of things in Stormblood, and even prior with long Foe and damage-draining MP/TP songs.

In Stormblood, over the course of an 8 minute encounter, an optimizing Bard would most likely use around ~22-24 skills that were primarily/entirely selfless in nature. In Shadowbringers, that's down to maybe ~8-10 or so (which is also about where Dancer is). Your average Monk or Summoner is going to be at maybe ~5-7 or something, so playing a "support dps" right now is only very slightly different than playing any other dps.

That's what (most) people are mad about. Not pixel aesthetics. There were no riots about the animation for Palisade. People enjoy helping their party. Generally those skills will have a song aesthetic for Bard, but that's not important thing in and of itself. The fringe voices that unironically want Bards to fight solely with harps are jumping in, but they've never been a significant number.