I paid attention to Vercure in the gameplay footage going around in youtube and it seemed to heal about 5500~HP. If it doesn't scale with INT it scales with attack power, but definetely not MND. Cast it twice in a row and that's a really decent amount.

As for a lack of defensive cooldown, did you notice that RDM is the most mobile caster of the game? He can move after basically every cast, has a gap closer AND a disengage skill, while never dropping the dps, PLUS a decent self-heal in case things go wrong. If you can't dodge AOEs with that mobility I don't know what's your problem.
A blackmage needs Manaward because it's on the opposite side of the mobility range, but the RDM can live without it.

Honestly, now that the embargo has lifted there's so many opinions flooding the internet and I've yet to find ONE PERSON who had the chance to play the new Red Mage and didn't like them. Hell I'm an old time RDM fan, I've been a main RDM for all the time I've played FFXI, and I'm really liking what I'm seeing. Why do we always need to complain without stepping back and looking at things in context? :/