Challenging Jobs + Easier content > Easy Jobs + Harder Content.

[Renathras]

While I would prefer jobs that are easy to pick up but hard to master, there's also nothing inherently wrong with jobs being simple, with one condition. Take RPR and SAM for example, both are very simple jobs with very easy core loops, however, both have optional optimisations to eke out an advantage over people who aren't as well-versed in the job. While simple jobs are fine, I firmly believe that every job should have optional things they can do to eke out an advantage should the player choose to engage in that, if such an option does not exist, it would mean players have nothing to master and it never feels nice to be forced off a job you enjoyed learning because there's no ceiling to reach for after you've gotten comfortable.

Yeah, but what do you define that as?

SMN has that:

Optimal SMN play is to use Titan in burst (every 2 min it should come right after Bahamut), and to use Energy Drain but NOT Festers under Pheonix, instead saving the festers so at the 2 min burst you can use 2 Festers, then Energy Drain, then 2 more Festers to maximize damage under raid buffs.

These are very much points of optimization, and something that people less well-versed in the Job wouldn't be aware of. Most casual adopters of the Job tend to use Ifrit at the earliest convenience of not having to move a lot so that they "get it out of the way", when the ideal is to use Titan after Bahamut every time if possible, many people don't save Festers for 2 minute bursts only, many people don't use Swiftcast as a normal part of their burst, nor do a lot of people seem to realize you can use Ruin 4 for movement during Ifrit (as well as Ruin 3 if you need a second GCD's worth of movement and can slidecast it), which gives you a LOT of flexibility to use Ifrit even during times that might seem less optimal.

SMN itself, despite being panned as braindead, already has "optional things (you) can do to eke out an advantage should (you) choose to engage in that".

WHM, likewise, is an easy Job that has some minor avenues of optimization, such as making sure to place Misery in raid buffs as well as snapshotting your DoTs under them.

So even the simple Jobs in the game already meet that requirement as specified...