To be fair...Summoner wasn't released until about a year and a half or so after FFXI's release. It also took SE quite a long time to tweak FFXI SMN. At first it was just mostly a /WHM. At 70 you could do the powerful attacks...so it was nice in end game but still they'd do that every minute (If MP allowed it) and then spam cure/NA stuff. >.>

Give it some time...hehe personally I enjoy SMN a lot but I see what people are saying when they feel its underwhelming compared to the traditional FF games ^^;