Instead of personal insults like some on this thread I'll try to just post the way I see bards right now.

People sign up to be an archer. A class that shoots arrows at people. Changing the roles after getting the job would be sort of silly. I support the idea that bards should be more support-oriented though. You can't do that easily before giving another job for the archer class though. Add Ranger as another job? Problem solved. People get to choose just arcanists do.