Dragoon has been the only heavily armored DPS since jobs, as a gameplay mechanic, were introduced in 1.x. It’s that specific niche this melee is for. With the only possible exception being Astrologian (arguably, since it originally felt like a healer version of time mage/gambler, and added Geomancer later), every new job has been a FFXIV version of a classic FF job.

So Sage and this new Maiming job are the first time the devs can freely fill out the roster from a gameplay and gearing side instead of only digging from FF franchise lore.