There is a lot of talk about how SMN isn't like the iterations of the job that has been in other games and I think that the version of SMN that was implemented in FFXIV was its own representation that definitely worked well.

Not that I am knowledged beyond the friends I have on my server who mained the job, but since this rework, many SMNs I know have all abandoned the job or are no longer having fun with it. I feel the devs should have stuck with the pre-4.0 version and added the Bahamut piece on top (even though he needs adjustments) and it would be all good. Instead, the job has been amended, I feel, to attempt to assuage those who felt it wasn't like what they remember before.

Who is to say of those who were saying such things were even playing the job to begin with. But now it's been changed and the players that were maining or playing it regularly don't even enjoy it anymore and are jumping ship in droves.