Healers, not required. (EW SPOILERS)

[Shalan]

What I like most about FFXIV is that it's not like other MMOs... which is a good thing because the game is wiping the floor with the other MMOs, and for a good reason.

FFXIV is seeing record numbers flock to it. I think the dev team is doing something right. If you so pine for the feel of another MMO perhaps play them a bit?

Besides the fact that this is effectively an appeal to popularity fallacy...

This is likely anecdotal, but most every praise I've seen for the game since it started to balloon in popularity was praise for the story, the gear mechanics, and the choreography of the fights as aspects that were making the game great in spite of the less than stellar class gameplay. When it came to class gameplay, most people seemed to feel that previous expansions (those before Shadowbringers) had stronger gameplay elements for classes, in particular for healers and tanks. The only classes that appeared to be "good" were DPS. And I honestly agree.

I think the game became popular in spite of the class gameplay for those two roles. Healers have been openly suffering for a long time while being ignored by the devs, and tanks are consistently a mixed bag. If I could get the same level of quality in story/gearing mechanics in other games as I could here but with more care and attention paid to healers or tanks I'd jump on that game over FFXIV in a heartbeat.