From Yoshida himself

[DaikiKiyoshi]

There is an argument to be made in that there was both a decent amount of players that desired a pure healer, which White Mages have traditionally been in the Final Fantasy canon, and that healer players that want to be more still have Astrologian and Scholar.

I don't actually like the argument, but it's still a counter point. These overarching changes to all the jobs slammed White Mage into dead last of the meta.

I understand that Yoshi-P is frustrated, but us complaining that what we're seeing in the early versions isn't adding up.

I'm sorry, what Final Fantasy canon? Even in the older games White Mages still had damage dealing spells such as Dia and Holy.

In some games White Mages could damage undead enemies WITH their heals.

[KisaiTenshi]

I'm sorry, what Final Fantasy canon? Even in the older games White Mages still had damage dealing spells such as Dia and Holy.

In some games White Mages could damage undead enemies WITH their heals.

You aren't looking far enough. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest's predecessor was Wizardy (Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.) Wizardry was also perma-death, so you could not just zerg-rush through things like you do in Final Fantasy. Wizardry funny enough was more popular in Japan despite originating in the West.

And prior to Wizardry, the mechanics still came from the Dungeons and Dragons Pen-and-Paper RPG. The White Mage is just a sanitized version of "Priest", and the Priest in Wizardry was also the Tank before there was a concept of a tank. A party in Wizardy was typically one Fighter (DPS), one Mage (DPS), one Thief (Utility), and one Priest (Healer/Tank), When you got to a certain level you could switch to Elite Classes (a similar thing exists in AD&D 3rd edition) which were a combination of two classes, eg the Bishop being the Priest/Mage, the Samurai was a Fighter/Mage, Lord which was a Fighter/Priest, and Ninja (Fighter/Thief.)

So for all intents, the Gladiator in FFXIV is the traditional "fighter" class repurposed as a Tank. The Thief class doesn't really exist (They fight with traps, and disarm other traps, and also do things like back-stabbing) in FFXIV and the closest you get to it is the Rogue class which has a Hide skill. The Conjurer is the Priest class in all but name. The Black Mage would just be the Mage.

In other games, typically the Priest can use healing magic against "undead" precisely because you encounter undead (zombies, skeletons, vampires) quite a bit.