Red Mages: How do you feel about the symmetry of Black and White magic?

[Payadopa]

Deliberate imbalance would be odd lore-wise, and arbitrary imbalance isn't really any more exciting than arbitrary balance.

Yes, yes it is. It's called designing a game/job/system. You conceive a game with rules with which it is played. Everything about a game is arbitrary from that kinda lense. The point is to make the arbitrary part fun.

And concerning the lore, please.
The didn't care about AST in that regard as well. Male Viera are supposed to be rare. White magic is supposed to be only know to like 4 people. I think RDM having more interesting abilities is fine. And besides, balances doesn't necessarily mean mirrored. PvP RDM is also a form of balance.