Blue Mage might actually be a good thing.

[Seraphor]

I’m surprised that with so many complaining about the stale endgame, the linear progression grind, and no reasons to replay old content or play in the open world, that there’s so much vitriol around Blue Mage.

In many ways, this is the answer to most of those old complaints, they’re actually listening to people. We’re getting a true horizontal progression job, the open world will be full of blue mages hunting down new skills, no blue mage will have the same skill set, and the skills will be so much more interesting than the other jobs that are restricted for balance.
It may not be tailored towards the ‘real mmo’ community, but it’s a godsend to classic final fantasy fans and those who do enjoy the casual content, which makes up 90% of the games content.

Despite it being pegged as a ‘solo job’ I’m betting there will actually be more call for social interaction. Imagine parties of blue mages working together in the open world, with different skill sets, people who actually need to communicate and work around each other instead of just filling a predefined role slot that we all recognise with no need for communication.
Blue mages with mighty guard acting as tank for blue mages healers with white wind, while those with bad breath debuff, etc.

But some people can’t see the wood for the trees, it doesn’t fit the end game tombstone grind paradigm, so it does not compute.
This isn’t a typical job, but it is something new and this game needs new stuff if it’s going to survive.
We’re still getting two new normal jobs in Shadowbringers, that’s the content for you if blue mage isn’t.

I get that’s it’s disappointing for those who were specifically looking forward to Blue Mage, and who don’t care about new types of gameplay or ‘casual’ content, that’s fair enough, those complaints are justified. But I think the overall reaction to this is a little overblown.
It might not be the Blue Mage everyone wanted, but it is something we've been asking for and many will be happy with it, and if you can get over the initial disappointment of an iconic job not being exactly what you wanted (everyone wanted it to be something different anyway) I bet you’d probably end up enjoying it anyway.

I for one am glad it’s not just another caster. BLM, SMN and RDM don’t need more completion, and I can’t see how a BLU being a typical class would be all that innovative or different from RDM.
The ‘Limited Job’ strikes me as a good opportunity to fit in some other jobs that typically would not fit the role system.
The prospect of a Beastmaster that actually collects monsters in the openworld, pokemon style, instead of being a non-magic SMN who can ‘summon’ up to three or four preset monsters, has me hopeful that this could be a new form of side content that will keep this game alive, alongside end-game raiding, and crafting/gathering. This could be the ‘Eureka’ that actually works.

Ultimately it will all be down to execution, and it's entirely possible they do screw it up, but I don't think it's a given, and I don't see too much reason to be pessimistic about it right now.