Why are Ranged DPS so unfun to play?

[Payotz]

That's exactly it: I do not want fights developed solely around Role Actions. To my mind, they should instead be developed around the various jobs, with some jobs offering X and some offering Y, with a greater total span of mechanics instead of just being satisfied with meeting a portion of most roles' features via a Role Action checklist.

Which is pretty much impossible to balance and will eventually revolve around one job being picked precisely because they need that job not role, the specific job to clear.
Case in point: MRD instead of WAR being taken in 2.0 before WAR's rework and double PLD being meta and in Heavensward where PLD not being able to block magic led DRK to be the tank that you pick for Savage since most of the damage going to the tanks is magic damage.

Fights being designed around role skills will make it so that both SE's primary goal of "You can play whatever job you want, they all can clear content" (which is a major selliing point of the game) AND the desire of "making the jobs feel distinct from one another" will be fulfilled.

A fight being designed around jobs rather than roles will make it so that specific jobs every tier will never actually be played at all, even in PF, and people will have to reroll for flavor of the month jobs every tier to actually get into groups; And that is a worse case scenario for a game like FF14.

You should be incentivized, not forced to play another job in your role.

The fight simply being ST, 2-target, or AoE, though is not a "specific scenario". It's the most basic category you can possibly have, and massively favors whoever has the ST advantage, since virtually all meaningful content is ST.

Square has also experimented and implemented fights that are not just Single Target. They proved that they are more than capable of actually implementing 2-target fights (BJ/CC, P6 DSR, Shinryu EX, A8S), and they're also more than capable of implementing multi-target phases (Death of the Heavens, E8S, Shinryu EX).

The argument that "they can't do this because all fights are Single Target and will ONLY be single target" is invalid because there's already established precedent in Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers and Endwalker that they have done this, and they're willing to do this.

And I don't understand why you think that vuln ups are not utility, when they're actually utility. It's a damage up, which is the most powerful utility of all.
If Trick Attack/Mug, Battle Voice, Battle Litany, Dragon's Eye, Brotherhoord, BRD Song auras are not utility, then what are they to you?

Having damage buffs that cater to ST/ 2-Target/Multi-target is a part of a job's identity and utility and won't sabotage a job's ability to clear content.
You can still clear a 2-target fight with a MCH, you can still clear a ST fight with a BRD, it's just not gonna be optimal, and that's completely fine.

It's not like it's the ONLY utility (and variance) that the jobs are going to have.

Raise cannot simply be used on cooldown. It is bottlenecked by the number of people who die, and is therefore barely, if at all, taxed -- for better or worse.

So... Refresh is not utility, because you're not taxed in actually executing it?
So in that logic, all raid buffs and BRD songs and even the CC like Arm Graze, Leg Graze, interject and cooldowns we have right now in the game, including stuff like Intervention, Divine Benison, Astro Cards, TBN, Nascent Flash, Mug/Trick Attack, Arcane Circle, Feint, SCH's combat Peloton and many more are not utility... because you're not punished when using it?

So by that definition.. Shield Bash, Clemency, Swiftcast+Raise, and Hardcast Raise is the only valid utility in the game?

Old Mage's Ballad? Sure. That had room for optimization and, in punishing its use only for as much as it was used, did not force the kit to be taxed for merely carrying it. Gameplay? Check. No tax? Check.

I'm confused.

1. Refresh isn't going to tax the Ranged Physical's kit either. It's another tool in the toolbox that's niche is recovery. You will only use it for specific scenarios, like Combat Peloton, like Interject, like old Refresh. It's not going to punish a Ranged Physical... for simply doing its job. It's not as powerful as a Raise or as potent as a Clemency to warrant taxing.

2. Old Mage's Ballad did tax the job itself, because you would lower your own damage during the song by 20%:


And you wouldn't be able to use the strongest song, Wanderer's Minuet:


Being punished for doing your job (role action) is a design decision I will never agree with.
In that job/role design the utility itself is the tax which I will never agree is good design.

Refresh is literally the same thing as Mage's Ballad, but only on an OGCD, without reducing 20% (or even 50% ) of your own damage and without interrupting your own rotation.
If that means that Refresh isn't considered a utility, then we clearly have different definitions of utility, and I disagree with your ideas.

[Shurrikhan]

So... Refresh is not utility, because you're not taxed in actually executing it?

I never said it wasn't utility. I said it had no gameplay beyond being hit on CD. It's Lucid Dreaming. Nothing more.

Such was not true of old Mage's Ballad, which you wanted to pace around the lulls in your damage, giving you far more room for optimization and thus giving it some actual gameplay impact.

Old Mage's Ballad did tax the job itself, because you would lower your own damage during the song by 20%.

No, old Mage's Ballad taxed old Mage's Ballad. Not the kit.

Bard's rDPS wasn't reduced just to support it, meaning that if all went well and Ballad wasn't needed, Bard still held higher highs than if that utility were instead free (and its costs therefore applied to all situations, rather than just those in which Mage's Ballade was needed.)


Let's put it this way: You have a balanced job. You now give said job a new tool. Said tool has X value.

If it has zero opportunity cost, then your job's value over time has now increased by that amount. While that value may be situational, the devs will pick a situation around which to balance it, and that is the amount to which, time X value, your job's value over time will have increased. Thus, given that you were balanced before getting yet more stuff, of value, for free, that new tool's inclusion makes you overpowered. Something now has to be taken in compensation.

Alternatively, if it has opportunity cost, then balancing that tool can be done more finely. Rather than balancing it also around its free value over time, one need merely balance it around the more extreme situations by which you'd really want to use it -- those situations that actually called for notable utility. With that, what needs be given in compensation for access to the tool, now that it's not outright free, is far less. There is then little to no tax.

In that job/role design the utility itself is the tax which I will never agree is good design.

There are only three choices here for a developer:

1. You purposely overpower the job who was already balanced without the additional, free utility.
2. You tax the job for the practical value of the free utility, around whatever situational range you see fair.
3. You tax the utility itself, making it more situational but allowing it higher highs and far lower tax on the rest of the kit.

Unless you purposely overpower a job, you will never get something for nothing. As such, I prefer the higher highs and lower tax on merely possessing utility (preferring instead to be taxed on using it, which typically has a lower net effect and punishes the given job less in situations in which that utility has less advantage, which in turn allows the utility to be more unique, since it needn't be so wholly applicable to every fight).

And --per the same coin, opposite side-- there is no point at which you are not punished for having utility. The question is simply whether you want it to be predominantly flat punishment (a "tax"), based around what you could do with it and affecting your rDPS in all situations on the hope that enough situations make use of the given form of utility, or predominantly dynamic, based around what you do actually use it for, in which case your performance is less fight-specific despite the utility itself being potentially more impactful.

So by that definition.. Shield Bash, Clemency, Swiftcast+Raise, and Hardcast Raise is the only valid utility in the game?

What now? I simply said that basic damage raidbuffs have no business being called utility because they do nothing more than move numbers around to then be moved right back again (job value -> ACT raw DPS numbers -> FFLogs rDPS numbers).

Yes, that includes Trick Attack/NewMug, Arcane Circle, Battle Voice, Battle Litany, Standard Step, Technical Step, shared Devilment, Bard's raidwide buff portion of its Songs, etc., most of the effect of Brotherhood, Chain Strategem, etc. It does not include the likes of Arm Graze, let alone Intervention or Divine Benison.

[Payotz]

Utility tax discussion snip.

And I would argue that the role itself won't be taxed because it's already taxed for utility that's not even there.
Ranged Physicals only purpose is to give a 1% uncontrollable dps buff and LB regen, that's it. That's literally the only reason why they're being taken in parties, and even that's barely hitting the minimum.

Ranged Physicals are already paying for the price of utility, without getting any utility in return. That's my whole argument.
There's no tax awaiting for the role because it's already built in to how low dps the role is compared to the other roles.

In fact, there was a time when the 1% dps buff wasn't even enough back in ShB launch, and that people would bring double BLMs instead of a physical ranged and caster precisely because the role has been overtaxed ever since the rework from Stormblood to Shadowbringers. Refresh is not gonna tax the role because they are already taxed as if it exists currently.

Giving back utility hits two birds with one stone. It gives back the identity of the role as utility dps, AND it justifies the low dps that the role actually brings, despite the 1% dps buff.

And even then, the "tax" for free movement or all this utility is just added responsibility for the ranged physical player. The mechanics that are designed with the role in mind will be the "tax" for both of those things as a Ranged Physical will have to bait AoEs out of the party, or make sure to CC the right things.

The role itself is not gonna be taxed even further than it currently is.

And also with that logic then things like Combat Peloton will tax the role itself, when it simply wouldn't. Refresh is not as strong as a raise to warrant extreme adjustments. It's in-line with Palisade, Combat Peloton, and current Tactician.

What now? I simply said that basic damage raidbuffs have no business being called utility because they do nothing more than move numbers around to then be moved right back again (job value -> ACT raw DPS numbers -> FFLogs rDPS numbers).

Yes, that includes Trick Attack/NewMug, Arcane Circle, Battle Voice, Battle Litany, Standard Step, Technical Step, shared Devilment, Bard's raidwide buff portion of its Songs, etc., most of the effect of Brotherhood, Chain Strategem, etc. It does not include the likes of Arm Graze, let alone Intervention or Divine Benison.

They are utility though. They're the most basic type of utility which is a damage cooldown.
In fact, they have the same gameplay as the utility you mention(Intervention and Divine Benison), which is either pressing it on cooldown for a free 500 potency heal (Divine Benison) or pressing it in a specific time according to the mitigation sheet (Intervention). You would frequently either delay and move raid buffs to optimal timings without losing a use depending on the fight.

If the boss jumps at the 2 min mark, then you're gonna call for raid buffs at 2 min and 30 seconds.
If for some reason at 4 mins 30 seconds, there's a mechanic that's happening that's a Hello World type mechanic, where you can't keep uptime on the boss as a party, then you're going to delay the raid buff call to maybe after the mechanic finishes.

There's also specific scenarios where you need to do a tight dps check here, so you hold on your 2 mins, and then use it on the tight dps check that you have to break in order to go to the next phase (like rewind DSR).
There's also specific scenarios where you delay raid buffs to line up with pot timings as well.

Raid buffs have a lot more gameplay than "pressing it on cooldown" if you delve into optimizing it, which is specifically what you said what's good with Mage's Ballad.

Your definition of both "just shifting numbers around to be moved back" and "bad utility with no gameplay" applies to the 1% DPS buff that each role provides to the party (which they provide by merely existing )

In fact, I can even dispute the existence of Divine Benison and Intervention with your argument against Refresh, in that Divine Benison and Intervention holds additional cooldowns hostage, and that it's just extra CPM you just press at the same time every single pull anyway. According to your logic, all of this utility is just needless CPM that should be taken out because it just makes Healers heal less and it should be baked passively in the trait Tank Mastery because it literally has the same gameplay as Lucid Dreaming, which is nonsensical.

And by that logic, Refresh is more of a utility skill and has better interesting gameplay than both Divine Benison, Intervention and all the raid buffs because you can use it as a prog tool AND you can plan for it for heal heavy phases that the dev team will design new fights around, because Refresh is a baseline role action.

[Shurrikhan]

And even then, the "tax" for free movement or all this utility is just added responsibility for the ranged physical player.

You can't simultaneously argue "the tax is excessive/bullshit" and "it'd be fine to be more taxed".

If, given the sheer amount of mobility given to the modern caster role and the lack of downtime for melee in modern encounters, you feel that Physical Ranged are underpowered --which I'd agree with-- you simply deal with that first and foremost.

"Ahh, your underpaid? Worry not! This job throws in coupons to Starbucks and Stapples! Hope you have use for them!" No. Don't try to shore up a job's basic imbalance with eclectic situational value unless you want the affected job to be competitive only situationally.

The alternative, again, is higher rDPS, baseline, in all situations and then access to utility at opportunity cost (which allows it to be more varied, gameplay-involved, and powerful), instead of trying to come to a rough rDPS equation on the basis of a mix of utility (the value of which, if actual utility, would doubtless vary situationally).

They are utility though. They're the most basic type of utility which is a damage cooldown.

Then where does that lead us?
Raging Strikes? Damage Cooldown. Must be utility.
Gauss Barrel? Damage. On a cooldown. Must be utility.

Even an auto-attack is damage on a cooldown.

And by that logic, Refresh is more of a utility skill and has better interesting gameplay than both Divine Benison, Intervention and all the raid buffs

Except, you do not have to hold Refresh for a raid jump any more than Lucid Dreaming, because Refresh's value has nothing to do with upcoming duration/uptime. You need only not use it when healer MP is absolutely topped off.

Unlike the likes of Intervention or raid buffs, the timing after the very first use literally does not matter, in which case your only optimal choice is to use it on CD, maximizing bonus MP ticks over time, because, unless your healers are MP-capped, there is no difference between MP ticks over time and effective MP ticks over time.

[Payotz]

You can't simultaneously argue "the tax is excessive/bullshit" and "it'd be fine to be more taxed".

My argument is that if there is more tax to be put on the role as a result of added utility, it's just gonna be based on the fight design adding more responsibility to the role, which is what we want anyway.
The kit isn't going to be taxed. Damage isn't going to go down. It's literally going to be an expanded kit and damage output (even a little bit more because of addition of vuln ups into the jobs again) without any additional tax on the kit
The fact that you have fight mechanics designed around physical ranged using their brand new utility Is the "tax", which technically isn't even a tax, it's just more added responsibility for the role.

The role is already taxed on the fact that they have "utility" (that they don't even have). If they need to tax it more, it's not gonna be on the damage output or kit, it's gonna be on the fight design.

Then where does that lead us?
Raging Strikes? Damage Cooldown. Must be utility.
Gauss Barrel? Damage. On a cooldown. Must be utility.

Does Raging Strikes affect the party and add more damage for 15 seconds to the party? If yes, it's utiltiy. If no, it's a personal cooldown.
Is Gauss Barrel being put on give the party a damage buff? If yes, it's utility. If no, it's a personal cooldown.

Utility is literally anything that buffs the party. It's something you give to the party to either boost their movement speed, attack speed, mana regen, max hp, damage mitigation and yes, even damage. It's things that will help the party rather than only help yourself.

Except, you do not have to hold Refresh for a raid jump any more than Lucid Dreaming, because Refresh's value has nothing to do with upcoming duration/uptime. You need only not use it when healer MP is absolutely topped off.

No you hold it for heavy heal checks that the new fights will have since the devs will be able to have the freedom to force the healers to go OOM, OR you hold it for when the healers die during prog.
You don't hold it for jumps, because that's not the situation you need to hold it for. You hold it for other scenarios, like heavy heal checks that need more heavy mana GCD healing, or when the healers die to get their mana back up.

Unlike the likes of Intervention or raid buffs, the timing after the very first use literally does not matter, in which case your only optimal choice is to use it on CD, maximizing bonus MP ticks over time, because, unless your healers are MP-capped, there is no difference between MP ticks over time and effective MP ticks over time.

It will matter if there's phases in the fight that is designed for it.
It will also matter for niche scenarios like the healers dying, but they need to gcd heal hardcore in the next 15 seconds, and their lucid is on cooldown.

If there's no tankbusters in raid, then you're gonna go ahead and press intervention on cooldown to mitigate auto attacks, and you'll be saying the same thing for Intervention as you are saying right now with Refresh.
Having Refresh available will make it so that the devs can add more mechanics that involve Refresh, just like how tank cooldowns are essentially made for tankbusters

[Shurrikhan]

Utility is literally anything that buffs the party. [/B]

Personal mobility tools? No utility to be had, despite situationally varied rDPS value, because it doesn't affect allies.
Having higher burst than any other job, thus better capitalizing on externally granted damage buffs? Not utility, because it doesn't target or spread to allies.

Let's say Adloquiem gains an effect that stores 50% of HP healed as damage to be dealt upon the allies' next attack. Because it's raw value, not potency, it doesn't scale with the recipient's gear or traits instead of yours. Because the value is snapshotted immediately, it cannot scale with the opponent's buffs instead of yours.

It would literally just be an additional half a Broil in damage, wasted if the fight ends before the target's next attack. Yet, by your reckoning, that would still be utility, because it's an effect that occurs through the ally, even if at virtually no dependence on or variance because of that ally, rather than SCH's utility there being that their nuke GCD heal refunds 150 potency (roughly half a filler GCD). (Hell, technically, Adloquiem itself would be utility already, as it generates a buff on the target.)

________________

At this point we're arguing semantics, but to my mind, if the "utility" does nothing that simply adding filler potency would do to identical effect across a majority of situations, it's not utility. To utility, it must have something to how it works, relative to more normal ways of granting equivalent rDPS, that causes its value to vary in different situations beyond merely teammate (in)competence (since any personal effect was already 100% dependent on competence -- your own).

Otherwise, it's just damage. Given ilvl equal to party average, having Battle Voice, for instance, behaves almost identically to additional Burst Shot potency. Both have their benefits potentially delayed by lengthy incoming downtime (Burst Shot's buff being wasted as you refresh DoTs instead, if necessary). Both are just as dependent on alignment and player competency. That doesn't mean I'd prefer for Battle Voice to be gone, but its effect is solely to...

• move raw damage from your kit to that of others, only to be moved right back again on FFLogs,
• move that portion of damage from depending on your gear and competency to that of your 3-7 party members,
• reduce Bard's relative power in parties of fewer than 7 players, and
• faintly increase party punishment for any deaths, especially yours.

It offers no affordances, no advantages over a simple buff to filler potency. Unless things go poorly, at which point it comparatively underperforms, it scales no differently than added filler potency. It grants no further use, nor way to be used.
At that point, is that "utility," or simply a constraint?

Having Refresh available will make it so that the devs can add more mechanics that involve Refresh, just like how tank cooldowns are essentially made for tankbusters

Like what, though?

So, you've got your shiny CD here by which to counter mechanic X.

It also happens to have an effect identical to Lucid Dreaming, except halved over time (split two-ways / at half the frequency), such that for it to have any impact outside of the very worst of situations, Lucid Dreaming must now be insufficient, and the healer's ability to use AoEs/Rez/GCDs --i.e., to use their full kit-- purposely made dependent on having one or more Physical Ranged.

This, in turn, would turn SpS from being a BiS stat up to a certain GCD threshold and Piety a waste stat in general to now either that... or the exact opposite... turning all healer optimization on its head the moment one speedruns or goes without a Physical Ranged to again having one.

And what does that mechanic look like? Just saps partywide MP? Introduces healing checks well beyond the level of DSR (which can nonetheless be solo-healed with a majority of casts being spent on Malefic), in hopes of draining healer MP throug AoE spam, despite the devs repeated insistence that they will not be increasing relative healing requirements?

No you hold it for heavy heal checks that the new fights

But, again, like what?

You can solo-heal every fight in this game even without Refresh / bonus MP.

the devs will be able to have the freedom to force the healers to go OOM

But the low modern healing requirements aren't simply a result of healers not having access to Refresh. It was a purposeful design decision, for better or (imo) worse, to make healing 'more accessible'. You will no more be able to try to force healers to go oom without a Bard under your suggested change than to force them to very low MP in a typical fight right now.

Like, just do anything to change up that effect as not to be flat total MP restoration, over time, on CD and you'd be more nearly able to do what you want, but the Stormblood design for MP restoration --free and therefore largely impotent and inflexible-- is not it.

But even then, you have to deal with the fact that you cannot use Refresh to uniquely counter anything, and having it actually be important means holding hostage healers' ability to even use their kit (that is, beyond rez, which other jobs would be able to cover better than your MP bonuses ever could). That's not going to work out well in a design paradigm specifically looking to minimize healing requirements and the tax of DPS-Rezzes is flat and therefore kept miniscule. You'd probably have to readjust how MP itself works for this to work out. You cannot simply draw from a very differently designed era and attempt to plunk its value into modern XIV. (Not that Refresh would actually offer any gameplay to Physical Ranged jobs even then, only hold Healers' hostage in certain cases.)

If there's no tankbusters in raid, then you're gonna go ahead and press intervention on cooldown to mitigate auto attacks, and you'll be saying the same thing for Intervention as you are saying right now with Refresh.

P.S. Intervention has an opportunity cost, just as Physical Ranged jobs' previous ways of granting MP did. Unless incoming damage would be more than 30% auto-crits, you'd be better off Provoking and using Shelltron. It is an otherwise less efficient option used when it has the most reason to be used (as per ARR/HW Ballad/Promotion), rather than a flat value over time (as per Stormblood Refresh).

[Payotz]

Personal mobility tools? No utility to be had, despite situationally varied rDPS value, because it doesn't affect allies.
Having higher burst than any other job, thus better capitalizing on externally granted damage buffs? Not utility, because it doesn't target or spread to allies.

That's right. Yeah.
A job can be brought for high personal dps with 0 utility (SAM/BLM), low dps overall, but very high utility (PLD), lower dps but for very specific utility (RDM/SMN/SCH/SGE), or for high burst, and high utility without having great sustained damage (NIN). A job can literally be just brought because you're comfortable with it really. It doesn't change the fact that Mug/Battle Litany/Expedient/Divine Benison/Passage of Arms are all utility.

Let's say Adloquiem gains an effect that stores 50% of HP healed as damage to be dealt upon the allies' next attack. Because it's raw value, not potency, it doesn't scale with the recipient's gear or traits instead of yours. Because the value is snapshotted immediately, it cannot scale with the opponent's buffs instead of yours.
It would literally just be an additional half a Broil in damage, wasted if the fight ends before the target's next attack. Yet, by your reckoning, that would still be utility, because it's an effect that occurs through the ally, even if at virtually no dependence on or variance because of that ally, rather than SCH's utility there being that their nuke GCD heal refunds 150 potency (roughly half a filler GCD). (Hell, technically, Adloquiem itself would be utility already, as it generates a buff on the target.)

Yeah that would be utility as well. That's correct. It's going to be as unweildly as your En Avant suggestion, and nobody would actually use it as seriously as other options, but yes that would also be utility. You're right. Utility is utility, even if it is bad utility, good utility or even unsusable utility (like Arm Graze and Head Graze).

I don't know why we're arguing semantics when it turns out that you do understand what I'm getting at. Utility is utility. It's stuff that makes the party burst more during their burst phases or during tight dps checks where you have to dump 3mil damage in total in under 60 seconds, it's mitigation where it stops you from being insta killed from full hp by an 80k raidwide, and it's movement speed buffs wherein it makes it easier to do a mechanic or position for a mechanic.

Whether or not it's bad utility, it's good utility, it's boring utility, it's engaging utility doesn't change the fact that it's all utility.

having Battle Voice, for instance, behaves almost identically to additional Burst Shot potency. Both have their benefits potentially delayed by lengthy incoming downtime (Burst Shot's buff being wasted as you refresh DoTs instead, if necessary)

It allows you to pump out as much damage as you can during intermissions where you have limited uptime (like all Thordin Phase in DSR). Yes that's utility.
It allows you to complete a tight dps check that you need in phases, like DSR Rewind, yes that's utility.
It allows you to have a higher chance of Direct Hitting in the 30 seconds window of you having higher main stat because of pots, yes that's utility.

It helps the party, that's why it's utility.

Like what, though?

Mechanics like BJ enrage, E12s enrage, E11's bleed after a raid wide, Nisi, a more damaging Mortal Vow, and literally Tumults back in E4S (our healers went OOM during prog for this one, so this is a really good one.)
A mechanic that applies more dot damage every raid wide, forcing the healers to gcd heal more than usual.
More outgoing raidwide damage that goes out constantly rather than every 30 seconds.

Hell, WoW's bursting affix in M+. Anduin's healer bubble check in Sepulcher. Even Grievous as an affix.

There's a lot of mechanics that's already there in FF14 that just needs to be either tuned higher or come out faster one after the other, and there are mechanics from their competitors that I believe is more than possible in FF14's fight design. More inconsistent damage coming out that doesn't give a fuck about your OGCD cooldowns would force healers to GCD more, because they simply have no more OGCDs left to spend after a while.

And even then, with only few more tune ups to the current fight design, Refresh still has a place as a recovery tool.
Rezzing as an RDM is not free mana, nor does mana actually come back when healers die.

Lucid Dreaming doesn't have a short cooldown, so in niche situations where they have no lucid dreaming AND the healers needs mana to GCD heal, Refresh has a place.
Hell, even if Lucid Dreaming is off cooldown and they used it, SE can make it so that Refresh stacks with Lucid Dreaming to have more mana available faster.

There's a lot of situations I can think of that Refresh is useful, but it just seems like you're hell bent into denying all of my situations as being feasible.

the healer's ability to use AoEs/Rez/GCDs --i.e., to use their full kit-- purposely made dependent on having one or more Physical Ranged.

Yes because the fight design is tuned with the existence of Ranged Physicals in mind. Ranged Physicals are already obligatory in content now anyway, might as well have their reason being there not just be the 1%, but also the utility they give. Refresh is a part of that utility yes.

This, in turn, would turn SpS from being a BiS stat up to a certain GCD threshold and Piety a waste stat in general to now either that... or the exact opposite...

No, because the only reason why SpS isn't maxed out is because faster GCDs will mean that your natural mp regen and lucid dreaming can't actually keep up with the amount of Glares you're going to do.
So really, Refresh will just make it so that higher SpS will actually be viable, with extra Piety staying the same "prog stat" as always.
You've always run minimum Piety as a healer when you're not progging anyway, so yes Piety, in an optimized run, is a wasted stat, even today.

turning all healer optimization on its head the moment one speedruns or goes without a Physical Ranged to again having one.

All speedrun groups already need a Physical Ranged because of that 1% party dps buff.
This won't change. Hell, you're already obligated to run a Physical Ranged, it's just the main reason why you wanna run one is because you give more dps to the party by merely existing. No raid buffs, no buttons to press, you don't even need to be alive to actually give the 1% buff.

You're already obligated to bring a Physical Ranged, might as well be obligated to get a Physical Ranged because of that AND its utility, re-establishing the Physical Ranged role as the utility dps.

I feel like we're running around in circles at this point.

And what does that mechanic look like? Just saps partywide MP? Introduces healing checks well beyond the level of DSR (which can nonetheless be solo-healed with a majority of casts being spent on Malefic), in hopes of draining healer MP throug AoE spam, despite the devs repeated insistence that they will not be increasing relative healing requirements?

There's a big misconception in the community that big party busters are actually heal checks. They're not. They're really just mitigation checks.
There's really very few heal checks in this game that actually makes the healers heal.

Akh Morn in P7, E12S enrage, and E4S Tumults come to mind as the only actual true heal checks in this game.
Most "heal checks" in this game are literally just "oh did you mitigate this? Oh no? Then you die."

The problem with the implementation of true heal checks in this game is that it's literally lined up with your cooldowns going off cooldown.
They're spaced perfectly apart from one another that you already have full mana, full OGCDs and cooldowns, and ready for the next true heal check.

You want more healing in this game? Bring those moments of heal checks closer. That's it.

If you Akh morn one after the other, then eventually you'll have even your AST go OOM, necessiating a Refresh.

But even then, you have to deal with the fact that you cannot use Refresh to uniquely counter anything, and having it actually be important means holding hostage healers' ability to even use their kit (that is, beyond rez, which other jobs would be able to cover better than your MP bonuses ever could). That's not going to work out well in a design paradigm specifically looking to minimize healing requirements and the tax of DPS-Rezzes is flat and therefore kept miniscule.

In a world where healers are demanding more healing, that's all going to change. You already have a guaranteed Refresh cause you'll have a Ranged Physical in every party.
Just like how tanks need extra cooldowns to stay alive for tankbusters, just like how the party needs shields from a shield healer to survive a party buster, just like how the party needs a Melee to Melee LB3 the boss for maximum damage.
You're already obligated to take a Ranged Physical because of an uncontrollabe 1% buff, just like you're obligated to get one melee, one caster, one healer and one tank because they all give a 1% dps buff. The only difference with Ranged Physicals is that Healers, Tanks, Melee and Casters bring more to the table, and Ranged Physicals don't.

Utility like Refresh, will be that extra something that Ranged Physicals can bring to the table, cementing their identity as Utility DPS.

You'd probably have to readjust how MP itself works for this to work out. You cannot simply draw from a very differently designed era and attempt to plunk its value into modern XIV. (Not that Refresh would actually offer any gameplay to Physical Ranged jobs even then, only hold Healers' hostage in certain cases.)

If you're talking about something like Heavensward Cleric Stance, Accuracy and even Positionals not giving buffs if not followed, I would agree, but we're talking about Refresh, which is the same as a Combat Peloton, Palisade, Divine Benison, Shake it Off and current Tactician. I can definitely see Refresh fitting in with little to no resistance and needing only a few adjustments in fight design. Hell, kiting adds and CCing them is from ARR, literally all the way back to the first version of the game, and it can stil fit in the game now with some adjustments. That's just not a valid excuse to not reimplement Refresh in modern FFXIV.