You're correct in that new SMN has nothing to do with the old one. The old one was barely worthy of the name Summoner but it is false to assume that "old SMN mains" were united in any way shape or form. There are plenty of SMN mains who consider this version to be the best the class has ever been and I'm proudly one of them after having a horrible experience with the job back in Shb.
The true issue is that they let the failed design continue on for 8 years too long when it was clear to no small amount of people from the start that turning Summoner into a poison mage with summons as a side gimmick instead of the focus of the job wasn't going to work out-especially when Heavensward started the trend of stacking more and more things on top of Dreadwyrm Trance to the point in Shadowbringers where death became extremely punishing to a degree that just wasn't seen in other jobs.
The complexity argument is an interesting subject. Personally, I did consider old SMN complex. Because I felt like I was fighting more against my keyboard and bad gameplay mechanics than the actual boss in front of me. It is also a valid argument that the complexity of the class came from its needlessly convoluted systems and that it was otherwise "simple" when all of that was taken away. In either case it was an unfun experience for more people than fans of 5.0-X SMN are willing to admit.
Given the explosion of new SMNs that occurred at the start of EW and shows no sign of decreasing anytime soon, it is unlikely they will ever revert these changes, seeing as they clicked really well with the vast majority of people. For every main who dropped the class, 10 new ones took their place. Old SMN was ultimately an outlier job who gave niche a whole new definition when you look at how every other job in this game plays.
If you direct your ideas to the appropriate support/job concept thread, there is a chance they will be considered for a future caster job in 7.0 though, which can hopefully embrace what little mechanics actually functioned properly from old SMN and not reintroduce things people already rejected.



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