DPS meters and why they're necessary

[Atreides]

Right now we're at a point where parsers have a really bad rep among casuals, even if many games use it, casuals usually are not familiar with them, we are talking about FFXIV specifically, context really takes a big role when making this kind of decisions (Community wise), I would not have said anything about them if they had been introduced from the beginning but right now I do not think it would be a smart move by SE, adding in-game parser where you're ranked.

Thats mostly because said "casuals" don't understand the meaning of a parser.
They view it as bad thing because it's used against them by some people but what they don't understand is that it's mostly rightly so because they really underperform sometimes, if they would see their own numbers they would be able to fix it without having others telling you to.

The most fun aspect of a DPS is dishing out as much damage as your job possibly can (while still fulfilling your support roles in case of a bard) and be an asset to your group.
A parser is only helping with that and people can actually see their real numbers, some people are so adamant that parsers are a bad thing and I can see where they are coming from if it was used to tell them how bad they are.
Instead they could use a parser themselves, improve on it and pull their weight! It's already enough if they do moderate damage, no one is expecting randoms to be exceptional but if you do 1/3 of the damage you're suppose to do it hurts not only you but the whole group.

I used to hate parsers too back in the day, I also was told off because of my low numbers and started to be ignorant about it.
Just out of curiousity I started using one back then in WoW and never went back, I started to see a difference, became good and after a while I turned into a top DPS I was never told off for underperforming since then.

In FFXIV I started by asking others to tell me my numbers and try to improve on it, every time I reached a higher number in an encounter they told me so and I slowly figured whats right and whats wrong.
So you don't even need a parser yourself, if someone tell you you're underperforming he might aswell help you to improve, I know I do when I see someone that could need a hand.