Hey can we all agree to leave the theme behind and actually focus on the gameplay being a big problem? "BuT iT's aN aCtUaL sUmMoNeR!!11!!!" is not an argument at this point any more as it seems like it's the only point of defence you can think of while countless of others are articulating what is exactly wrong from a gameplay perspective. Not even touching on the thematic.

For me, the lack of gameplay, decision making and more actually forced me out of my job of seven years. Setting the bar so low that all the other classes which bored me before are more interesting now. That alone should tell that the current state isn't a very good one. More and more people are starting to see this and the sole reason why we're on the forums talking about it is so that our voices can be heard.

Some of us even have moved onto other jobs because it is genuinely not fun to play or not engaging to play as there's;
1) No decision making
2) It never really addressed the issue of "Ruin spam", in fact it actually made it worse and they're only flavoured ruins now
3) Somehow, the ghosting issues are still there. Something that people celebrated being gone due to the old system being gone, while it is actually still there.
4) Carbuncle's skills don't work properly not to mention it spams the chatbox. It seems to invalidate the shield it gives you. So what is the use?
5) The leveling process has been completely screwed over, meaning that if you get level synced, you barely have anything to do. Even less than a Dragoon that hasn't unlocked full thrust yet or Doom Spike.
6) There is no inherent flow to the kit, though this does tie into decision making. The differentiating cast times often disrupt the bare minimum of flow that you can possibly even get into, before one just completely throws you for a loop. It works for Black Mage purely because it's in actual phases, but not for Summoner. The two Ifrit charges are too disruptive for keeping a smooth gameplay.
7) Bahamut and Phoenix lack impact compared to their Stormblood and Shadowbringers iterations. (Phoenix is only Shadowbringers but still.)
The combo that Phoenix had going for it was good and made no sense to get rid of it. If anything, Bahamut should've gotten it as well. Also, why only one Enkindle for these two? There is nothing to do in that phase anyway, so why take it way in the first place?

These are but a few of my issues that I have on it. There would be more but for now it's entirely gameplay based. The job simply isn't complete and is unfinished. Not going to stick my head in the sand and pretend everything is ok with a job while it genuinely isn't. The rework isn't a success and I'm hearing from more people that it's indeed rather bare-boned.

Hate for the "old" iteration shouldn't cloud one's vision to the point where something unfinished is acceptable because it isn't. We get it, some of you hated the DoTs for some weird reason but it's time to let go of that. Same for the "b-but other game!", well guess what. Everything has been done and will be done at one point, sometimes things just resemble one another by coincidence.