Luci (btw, this is my new nickname for you, I say it with love), rebuilding the foundation while leaving a broken cornerstone would be far more worrisome. Debuffs were useless and broken, and there are only 2 mage classes. It is far quicker to build and balance a nuking ability set than it is to build and balance a debuffing ability set. Given the current situation, there was no real choice. They needed to rebuild the classes now, then implement jobs, then add a debuffing class after it has underwent sufficient balancing. They cannot risk a brand new ability list and job system in 6 months... they need it released soon so the players can test it, and it can be tweaked into a well-oiled machine in time for 2.0.

To recap: your chief complaint seems to be the lack of debuffs. The reason there will be no debuffs is that there are not enough mage classes, which Yoshi-P has acknowledged and is addressing. You'll have my agreement (and my axe) if you state that a debuffing class needs to be made a higher priority, but claiming that they are ruining combat by sidelining a broken mechanic until it is again ready for prime time? That's just an overreaction.