To shoot yourself in the foot to have fun with healers seems so completely against game logic.

You WANT new gear. You want to chase that reward. That's why you prog, that's why you fight, to reach for that carrot. I'm not saying it is the ONLY carrot, but it's definitely a reason for people to try new bosses and encounters, to gain more power, to get the happy chemicals of progression.

If your class requires you to abandon the chase, to sabotage yourself with lower gear and worse party-members in order to be fun or engaging, it must mean that it has been designed without any sort of consideration for those core aspects.