SE, the 7.0 BLM changes will not increase engagement. They are completely-pointless.

[LilimoLimomo]

...

I've re-read your post several times in an earnest attempt at understanding your perspective. There were times when I felt like maybe I was close to getting it, but then I'd realize I didn't. And after several reads, I think this is where we see things differently:

In the DT BLM you cannot do any of these things, because the moment you do not use a Fire IV (aka, use your builder) or don't cast Flare Star (aka, your spender) you permanently lose that one Flare Star.

I genuinely don't see how this is different than any other spell: if you don't cast it, you don't get the good results it provides. Whether that's damage or tokens or Umbral Ice or something else, not casting the spell means you don't get the thing. So I'm not seeing how Fire IV's tokens are different. It seems like you tried to guide me towards understanding how they were different with this...

you can say that if you overwrite a Xenoglossy right now you're doing the "same" (didn't spend the Xeno) or if you just skip your entire AF (like, go into Fire and immediately cast Despair) you're also wasting the "MP you built", but the fact that how you build and spend those resources, when you do that and in what order you do it is so free-form is why BLM doesn't fit that pattern at all (it fits it in the loosest sense possible).

...but I don't follow. How are Fire IV and Flare Star dictating when and in what order you do things in a way that other BLM spells aren't? And maybe it will help if I explain the way I'm thinking about it, which might be different than the way you do.

It seems to me like I'll be playing my Fire phase, and if I cast Fire IV then I'll get a token, and if I cast something like Xenoglossy then I won't. And unless there's something I'm missing, I can interweave casting those different spells in any permutation that I want, toss in a Fire whenever I want to sustain my Astral Fire, etc. Naturally, when I've built up 6 doodads, I probably want to unload with Flare Star, but I don't see how that's meaningfully different than unloading a Xenoglossy when my Polyglots are full. It still feels free form to me, in that the context of the actual fight plays a large role in determining what spell will seem best to cast at any given moment.

Is the issue that when you get that last token, you feel like you have to immediately cast Flare Star before you cast another Fire IV, and that's a meaningfully shorter window than the 30 seconds it takes to build a Polyglot? This is my best guess at trying to understand what you're trying to communicate, but I'm not sure if that's what you're trying to say or not.

While I don't understand, I'm genuinely interested in understanding. So I'm hoping this explanation of my thought process might help you to see where we're not seeing eye-to-eye so you can share it with me.