One of us will always be "you don't need a meta team to clear, play what you like"-job. Assuming BLM takes the flex DPS spot, there are two casters for one caster spot.

You don't have to present world prog team choosing the "prog caster" as some massive revelation to me. My problem lies squarely with that "prog caster" stigma RDM gets. Being better in prog doesn't justify being the worst pick when prog is over. I don't want to switch to BLM or SMN (which as you and others have noted I feel nothing but contempt for) just because what few deaths do occur are entirely within healers capacity to handle (so whatever raising ablity I have is useless) and we now have 20 extra ilvls worth of defense and HP (so whatever mitigation I have is useless). At this point RDM is left... With the worst damage. The one metric that matters when all is said and done.

In the end, the job with the least damage will always be the one feeling unwanted and useless.