Agreed OP. Honestly they could right now pump Bard's damage up to be right around the same level of where it was during Stormblood, make it a monster again, and I still wouldn't replay the job. I wasn't playing it to be a glorified Ranger, I played it to be a hybrid damage support that felt like the backbone of the party. While I have other issues about the job as it is in terms of some issues it's current rotation and traits cause that need to be ironed out, that loss of job fantasy that was so perfectly well done in Stormblood simply can't be fixed by a flat numbers increase. Hell if I they flat out just reverted Bard to it's level 4.55 version right now but with increased potency to make sure it's damage stayed the same (which still would be the bottom of the barrel in the game), I would go back to it immediately and give up all the things the job 'gained' in ShB.