Balance, Homogenisation and Encounter Design: The Problem.

[Nora_of_Mira]

Also, to Nora, these were just two random examples. I'm just worried for what I think may be just the beginning of a bigger identity loss process. Personally, I fear the day when we'll be just 3 roles with different cosmetics and a couple rotation nuances, but of course there is a lot of people out there who wants just that.

from my perspective, its because you (collective you) want FFxiv to be a game that it's not, hence why people think its an "identity loss". I think FFxiv is just trying to be FFxiv and if people want these drastic changes to philosophy, they should play GW2.

Also:

I like every job being viable, but there are many routes available to achieve that result without going all-in on DPS checks and full homogenisation mode IMHO, and of course they are more time consuming and difficult to design for the devs.

I believe this to be straight up impossible. to look at GW2 again, every job can basically fill any role, but thats bc the content allows it. FFxiv's content does not allow that, hence the trinity, and hence the homogenization. I dont find the homogenization in FFxiv to be egregious. I love melee DPS but I favor the style of DRG and SAM over NIN and MNK. I also favor DRK/GNB over WAR/PLD. These nuances really only show up when doing high-end content, for SURE, but they exist and are different enough to feel unique, imo.