Quote Originally Posted by Kassiekane View Post
You're missing the point. It would be stupid to release just a tank and a dps without a healer at an expansion. Being limited to 2 jobs per expansion, we have to first look at what roles do we need before looking at the history of the job.
We can actually do with more DPS options at this point. We won't really need another tank or healer in the rosters for a while, as the current ratio is 3:3:7 (which is actually pretty good in terms of role distribution).
As of the moment we need a caster dps.
And there's plenty of places to find a caster DPS. Blue Mage being one. Geomancer being another. You could also dig up a one-shot job like Pictomancer (AKA Relm from FFVI) or even create a brand new job for it.
If Red Mage could fill the roll of both caster and support, then the roll counter evens out at 3. Just like how there's 2 barrier healers and 2 regen healers even though there's only 3 healer in total.
The roll counter doesn't need to be perfectly even.
The history of red mage being a jack of all trades provides this opportunity.
The job's is a mix of sword and magic. The jack of all trades thing is a console implementation that works there because you don't have to constantly compete with other players nor are you subject to the expectations of anyone but yourself. Turn-based combat doesn't lend itself to proper hybrid gameplay, either.

There's templates to base the job on without it being a total disservice like FFXI's RDM was. Several of us have pointed to WoW's retribution paladin and enhance shaman for this reason; those are actual working hybrids that bring melee and magic to the fray while still bringing their utility AND justifying their spots as DPS.