What I envisioned for Summoner

[Kyreanna]

What is a summoner exactly?
In FF4 - Rydia was a BLACK MAGE who "also" had the ability to summon monsters for a 1 time attack

In FF6, FF7, FF8 - No summoners, just monsters utilizing a singular power attack that, depending on the animation time vs. resilience of the enemy, could either shorten a battle or make it longer than if you'd just hit Attack.

In FF9 - Garnet and Eiko were WHITE MAGES who "also" had the ability to summon monsters for a 1 time attack

In FF10 - Yuna was a WHITE MAGE who had the ability to summon, and when the summon was active the entire party was disabled in favor of the Aeon.

In FFXI - Summoners were basically just classic esper/aeon/eidolon designs who happened to have a human standing there to lend a reason as to why they were on the battlefield

In FF12 - A hybrid of 6-8 + 10 system in which the goal was the ultimate attack, but it took some time/preparation

In FF13 - 1 per character and had the feel of "there just for the sake of being there" and more important to the storyline than the actual gameplay.

So comes FFXIV - Summoners up to this point have been attachments and add-ons to other jobs or largely forgotten in the face of the summoned monster itself. For the first time in its existence, the Summoner has been granted its own spell set, and the ability to have a summoned pet out full-time.

While I agree wholeheartedly that the interaction between summoner and pet is lacking, the job itself can finally stand on its own. As far as I can tell, the first and foremost thing that must happen for a pet roster expansion is for the elemental resistances to be fixed. In their history, almost every summon has been based on one of the prime elements (4-8 + unaspected, depending on the game) so for there to be more, wind and fire need to actually be wind and fire, not caster or melee.