What Happened to Customization & Specialization?

[Jandor]

Playing a GLA at 15 gives you very little insight into the job at 70. Maybe in the past it was more useful, but as the level cap increases, what little benefits that used to have only continue to dwindle.

It's not about giving you an understanding of the all of a jobs various intricacies at max level, it's about giving a basic impression of them so the party can function better.

I started as a Gladiator with no prior experience at all of trinity MMO gameplay, being encouraged to level other classes to get various bits of kit made me a better tank and a better player.
Trying Conjurer to get Cure and Raise made me more aware of what healers were putting up with when I was tanking, moving to Thaumaturge to get swiftcast for my Conjurer made me more considerate of stances, timers, etc. etc. as I flitted around through most of the basic classes.
A lot of the things I picked up doing this are so obvious to me now of course that it's hard for me to believe I ever didn't know them, but I didn't.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying cross-class was perfect, but IMHO it was far superior to role actions. It should have been tweaked, not replaced. I mean, they didn't even do a good job replacing it, it still exists essentially unchanged for crafting classes, where are my crafting role actions?