Given how the combat in this games priorities of player actions is essentially DPS > tanking/healing for all roles, I really wonder how people would take it if the devs ever did a 180 for all forms of content. I'd imagine burnout would be far more common with tanks and healers if every fight became almost Savage mode level of responsibility.

This means people have to remember in a 4man, SCH is solo healing a toned down Savage mode... DPS probably wouldn't be as much of a routine thing. Tanks having to perfect their mitigation usage even against single or small group trash mobs, since maybe each mob will be doing 1/4-1/2 tanks HP per slow auto. DPS would have to manage CC and maybe mechanics that have the mob apply a debuff focus (while still attacking tank) that will only release when the mob takes X amount of damage from its focus. Failure to break results in either massive damage (meaning a badly timed one = dead tank) or outright wipes the group. Plus, they'd probably have to rework the lack of necessity for MP management we have in this game.

Haaa... well that's more of a farfetched thought than anything. There is zero chance the devs would even remotely release something that difficult to a 4-man or non-savage 8 lol. Given how much failure among the players Cata instances first brought about by returning to those old punishing roots, I'd very much imagine players here reacting even worse. The outcry and quick change of heart regarding the role of the healer meta (DPS > healing) would be astronomical for a while lol.

I imagine for most people who claim that it's because healing isn't as important that they DPS, would quickly remove themselves from the game/role if such a change came to be. Having said that, the folks complaining about healers focusing on DPSing most/all the time just haven't grasped the idea that the devs (un)intentionally designed the healer role to be DPS with healing abilities. This is how FFXIV works, so some love it, some hate it. Unless you have a bad tank (which is not uncommon), the DPS role is actually a thing for not just healers, but tanks too.

Likewise though, a lot of healers and tanks seem to not have grasped that perspective too, despite them doing it. A well geared SCH in a fight with AoE keeping up with a not-as-geared DPS that sucks at AoE where mobs die fast? Yeah, I'd imagine the SCH would be doing quite well there. Likewise with tanks. Healers and tanks complain about any form of hindrance to their DPS because they see it as a mandatory thing that they deal almost as much as the DPS in equal ilvl gear, yet they seem to think it unusual that they keep up in some situations. It's just really funny to me when that happens.