I haven't been playing this game for long at all, but I have been maining WHM so I feel like I may have a few things to contribute to the conversation.

For me, the issue isn't about how many DPS buttons the job utilises. I could be satisfied with the two I use most of the time. The reason I'm not, is that it feels like the other 95% of my kit (you know, the healing part) never really (really) sees the light of day. Why does that trouble me, you might ask. Frankly, it's a matter of definition of the word "healer". In most other MMOs (that I've played), playing healer means you essentially juggle HP bars, and the game makes sure that's close to your full-time occupation. This game's definition of healer is different, and since this is the only game (again, to my experience) that employs such a definition, it's not unexpected for confusion to occur. The measure of how good a healer is in FFXIV seems to stem greatly from minimising the time spent actually healing. I'm not by any means implying people who enjoy this playstyle are wrong, it's just very different from what I am used to doing. Fyi, I've always gravitated towards support/healer classes no matter what MMO I play which, again, with the exception of this game, usually comes down to juggling HP bars.

So, when I say I'd be interested in playing something more akin to a "pure healer", I don't mean I want to throw a Cure I at the Tank's 90% HP and then go AFK for six seconds until I do it again. I do want to be busy. But I want to be busy healing. And not just in the top echelons of content, but mostly everywhere. Now I realise this is kind of a moot point, since regardless of what I want, that's not the kind of game this was designed to be. I'm slowly making my peace with that. There's other content I can enjoy since healing doesn't seem to be the iteration that I personally am attracted to. Neither do I expect the devs to suddenly revamp the gameplay to better suit me, considering this game already has a pretty established identity. To arbitrarily shift it in any major way would be a risky move, to say the least.

So, ultimately, the way I perceive this dichotomy in the healing community could be, largely, due to differing definitions of what the role is supposed to do. People who migrated from other games, like myself, could be looking for a type of gameplay that is not really supported here. On the other hand, people who have always played XIV or simply prefer its way of doing things, rightly see nothing wrong with how the healing is implemented and instead gravitate towards how the DPS aspect functions. I don't really see a solution that would magically fix this issue. Either what you're looking for is here, or it isn't and it's not ever going to be (barring any MAJOR encounter design shifts, which tbh I find improbable). It's up to each individual player to either come to terms with that, or not.