Well, with the new Role system, you don't HAVE to start as Conjurer, you can start as an Arcanist, and just wait until you hit 30. You have to slog through the first thirty levels as DPS, but you'd have to do that anyways to get to Scholar even if you started as a conjurer.

That being said, you're right, it never made sense that there was only once healing class. And it hurt WHM when it came to this Role system.