So...is the Ranged Role gone? Are we in a Reverse HW?

[Lastelli]

I think it has more to do with what you said in your last paragraph : the matter is not at all about not taking one, it is that SE fears we always take 2 like it was in heavensward. But there are 4 spots, 3 roles ; we'll always have to take 2 of one, and right now it's never gonna be range.

And that's clearly what the devs want. They're trying to enforce 4 melee-4 ranged as the standard comp, as it was in ARR. It's pretty obvious (notice how they're nerfing SMN, basically confirming that they don't want BLM+SMN to be meta). And this is the most logical comp as well, given the number of jobs for each role (and I'm positive we're getting another melee job in 6.0).