XI's red mage was balanced spot on. The community chose to play it a certain way and that's fine as well in my opinion. I always thought SE gave us Blue Mage because the players never really embraced RDM as a front line role, and instead a flexible backline role.

Whatever the next mage class will be, either that, or a JOB variation will very likely get the debuff spells they're taking away from THM and CNJ