@Malachite
Thanks for being so horribly reasonable, it's rather offsetting coming from these forums.

I can empathise with some of what you're asking for, but I generally just assume that it'll come into effect with the addition of more abilities and content. It does, however, require GOOD balancing of class roles and perceptions (perception being key) - A party is not at its best sitting around forever waiting for a Conjuror to log on as the only "healer" in the game. (Not that I think healers are necessary in a FF14 experience party, but to make a successful exp party without them requires that nonexistent "skill" you're talking about.) The pace of FF11 was so glacial, as a non-red mage, you spent large amounts of your time staring at the floor (this is before level cap raises), which is hardly engaging.

Pigeonholing people into class roles actually paradoxically limits dynamism and causes another plethora of problems by throwing the player onto the mercy of public perception. Remember pre-Colibri Dragoons? The joke was they had the job ability "Auto-Leader", because there certainly was very little of a snowflake's chance in hell they'd get a party otherwise.