Feeling fundamentally the same is what I was worried about. My boredom with Scholar started in Stormblood. My favourite iteration of Scholar was 2.0 and I loved it. It was still fun in HW. In Stormblood I still enjoyed being able to weave in and out of healing & DPS with it, but healing on its own, not so interesting. I'd love an evolution of 2.0 SCH, but it has gone in a different direction to what I got out of it. With the new shields from Seraph, I was hoping more shields might shift the emphasis in ShB healer.

But your comments on AST, that falls in line with my impression too. The cards are still enjoyable, I like them too, in terms of how they feel to play as part of being an AST, but potencies and how they actually benefit the party are on the weak side. So I might find AST more engaging these days, even if it's behind the other healers, but I feel the others heal too well anyway. Though buffs to divination would be nice as a reward for the work you put in, as you say. And in addition to other tweaks & QoL needed.