The original post starts out well meaning, but then goes on to propose solutions without actually stating what the problems with bard currently are.

The problem is that there are a lot of "assumed" issues with bards, which vary depending on who you talk with, so it would be best first to identify what problems you're trying to solve.

From an effective dps standpoint, bards seem to be in a pretty good spot right now in terms of actual raids. Maybe it's because the bard I typically play with is very good at his class, or maybe because I'm a dragoon and I'm buffing his piercing damage, but he's ended up roughly on par or higher than other caster dps since the patch.

For the record, he wasn't very happy with bards before the patch, but he's pretty happy with where they are now.

Now, there may very well be quality of life improvements that could be made to bards, but the issues really need to be spelled out when proposing solutions.