I've had an epiphany about blue mage that's changed how I personally see the job.

When it comes to purely solo battle content, the game is pretty sparse on offerings. You can do battlecraft leves and solo old content, that's about it. The other solo activities (gathering and crafting) all have their own associated classes and gear and abilities they utilize.

What's happening is this: Blue mage is to solo battle content what crafters/gatherers are to solo non-battle content. But because they're locking it behind a specific job everyone is all pissed about it though whether you believe that's justified or not is up to you. By making this decision they're adding their own unique solo battle content with enemies to fight and things to collect (abilities in this case) but also locking a highly requested job (essentially) behind a solo only setup.

I guarantee you that if they added the carnival as a battle square style mini-game with a huge selection of enemies to fight with associated achievements, then there would probably not be nearly as much complaining. Once I started looking at blue mage as the combat content equivalent of what gatherers/crafters are to solo non-battle content I stopped thinking that it was a bad idea. I'm not exactly pleased that they're locking me out of the DF with it though as I actually prefer leveling through dungeons and making a full premade isn't an option 24/7, especially with everyone that's going to be leveling blue mage! Now that I've rethought my position I'm ok with seeing how it's implemented. But I still stand firmly by my belief that sooner or later they'll cave and balance it for parties. By making it solo only, I think they'll start to realize it might not be worth the resources.