The Black Mage simplification completely misses the point

[Absurdity]

If the increased DDR mechanics shoehorn every job into the exact same design mold because nothing else functions anymore, then yes, maybe it's the DDR design that needs to change.


On a side note, I'm also concerned about the melee buffs to supposedly compensate for more downtime.

Because I bet they entirely miss the point of melee uptime. It was supposed to be hard, you were supposed to take risks for your uptime and greed GCDs with last second dodges or unconventional strategies and good party coordination.
It was not supposed to be literally impossible.
Running around doing nothing for 30% or more of a fight is not fun gameplay.