So you're telling me..

[Satarn]

I think the reality is covid and their shift to work from home caused balance to be all over the place right now and a general mess, so it doesn't surprise me it looks the way it does.

Covid what? You're saying it as if this was a special case for XIV's balance. Does nobody remember SHB launch anymore? MNK being way ahead of everyone else, NIN being completely garbo, phys ranged as a whole being so bad not even the 1% main stat buff was worth taking them? This isn't new, dps balance being pretty bad is par for the course with expansion release. They will probably get it in an okay-ish place before second raid tier, as they usually do.