I think the key is having things that can be Esuna’d and that there is value in doing so, but it’s also not a literal requirement. With Doom, I really wish they would combine both dooms—you can remove doom with Esuna or by fully restoring the HP of the target. Both ways work giving you options. Imagine single target attacks that drop someone down to 1 HP and give them a 10 second doom. White Mage can Bene it away, but Scholar might rather Esuna it off.
Other suggestions I’d make: Paralysis during mechanics is an option. It might not matter normally but if you need to be moving, it can pose an issue. Infirmity is another option, something that reduces how much HP you can restore. Combine that with high damage like Reaper’s Toll and being able to Esuna the infirmity can get you around it if need be. Even the raid wide bleeds/poisons and bleed busters should have the DOT be Esuna-able. Even if mitigation makes that not an issue, Esuna can allow you to remove a nasty DOT that got through unmitigated. What about an MP DOT that can either be Esuna’d or reversed with an MP refresh like Lucid? If it occurs while Lucid is on cooldown, Esuna can prevent you from losing too much MP. Or it’s a debuff that doubles your MP costs and can be managed with cooldowns. Maybe you could have a mechanic with avoidable damage that is paired with a massive Vulnerability up on the party. You can do the mechanic correctly and no one takes damage, but any failure will result in that player getting KOed. But Esuna gives you the freedom to make mistakes without getting KOed.
I also think white mage deserves an OGCD AOE Esuna and having more things to use it on could make it viable utility. Scholar already has Expedient, and Esunaga (Esuna III) is originally a White Mage thing anyway.