Of course the instant heal/shield is lower potency than the extended duration hot...

Funny - when I cast Adlo on my Scholar and it doesn't crit, I don't find it useless. And thank God, cause that's like 80% of the time. The only reason SCH use Adlo sometimes for normal or hurried heals is because they do not have a Cure 2 equivalent - if they did, it'd be tankbuster only. Noct Benefic has a purpose, and it serves that purpose well.

Diurnal is overall stronger but just because of the more generic usefulness of the mana efficient hots versus the more niche use of shielding. When there is a WHM or other AST in the party against a boss with a tank buster, Noct will work just fine.