So how would you buff bard? (Just like to hear peoples thoughts)

[Valence]

That sounds pretty radical, especially considering that it may alienate a lot of BRD mains and people having played it since forever. I'd be cautious with such reworks personally.
I'd agree though that in its current state the dot has lost most of its substance, but perhaps the solution would be to reintroduce a lot of what has been lost instead of doing what SE does best: axing stuff without any counterpart.

[Absurdity]

That sounds pretty radical

It might sound radical but if the changes from 5.0 until now are an indicator of the direction then it's not all that unlikely.

especially considering that it may alienate a lot of BRD mains and people having played it since forever. I'd be cautious with such reworks personally.

They've probably been alienated after they butchered Stormblood Bard.

Shadowbringers was probably the worst offender here.
You had all the restrictions of your DoTs still proccing your songs but with a flat 35% rate, so none of the excitement from getting crits back-to-back or snapshotting your DoTs with all the crit buffs.
Not to mention that they thought it was a good idea to remove all party support from Bard in 5.0 because they needed to sell the shiny new Dancer.

I don't think the job has ever really recovered from that.