Having played sage, I now have a question

[Acece]

Which is precisely the scenario the devs wish to avoid.

You want the Lily charges not for healing, but for a damage boost. Which is NOT what Afflatus Misery is even for in the WHM toolkit. I said it before but i'll say it again: Misery is a REFUND of damage lost to GCDs needing to be spent on heals.
It was never and according to the lack of an upgrade trait, will never be a DPS boost button. Therefore, no. You get no Lilies before a fight. Use it the way the devs clearly intended it to be used and stop crying about it.

I would imagine the trade off would be that whm wouldn't be able to generate blood Lilly outside of combat.