How could you do this to AST?

[Yeol]

Causal players also never complained about the percentage of ASTs versus WHMs in speed runs because the vast majority of casual players ignore that kind of stuff. They simply don’t care. So I don’t know where you’re getting that idea from.

casuals raiders couldn't care less about speed runs. As for logs, the community as a whole practically enforced a "meta"

Then remind me why were the forums filled with WHM and AST topics during HW?

Even if all jobs can clear Week 1 Savage or Ultimate doesn’t mean you should let some remain overpowered while others feel like garbage—and have garbage damage to go along with it.

Others did not feel like garbage at all. This is how people felt when their Job was not taken into speed kills and they did not see their favorite YouTuber/streamer playing their job.
I remember when someone asks which healer job should they pick, and the answers were mostly AST or SCH.

Even if you look at the number of clears on healers during HW. WHM had the least number of recorded clears. It did affect peoples' mentality.

This is primarily because Astro was complete garbage until 3.2, being the only job to date that straight up wasn't viable. You literally couldn't clear Gordias until geared due to its underpowered heals.

This was the devs mistake with both Goridas design and AST.

It was buffed adequately enough in Midas to be decent, however White Mage remained the best healer.

No problems here, This is where AST should be.

Granted, Astro had an enormous stigma. Hence why the devs, in a desperate bid to convince players to give Astro another chance, overbuffed it to kingdom come.

And this is where the Devs went wrong. Thank-you.

It didn't last, as by arguably 4.3 but undeniably 4.4, Astro was once again considered the best healer. With CU instantly applying, buffs and free mobility, White Mage had almost no answer to Astro's kit.

In 5.0 this is no longer an issue.

Purposely allowing certain jobs to be overpowered is bad design.

Answer in color blue above. AST power was supposed to be buffs.

The cards always needed a complete overhaul due to the direction Shadowbringers took.

This I agree with. We no longer have TP and MP so card effects must change. But this still doesn't mean we shouldn't have damage buff cards. At the moment all AST cards give a damage buff but they card system is very poor.