It's true that a lot of jankiness would leave a lot of Jobs if there were no raid buffs to coordinate with.

But, at the same time, a cooperative game where you don't feel stronger when there are other players teamed with you can feel strange, or unsatisfying.

WOW went down the route of 'Let's just delete raid buffs' for many years, and most players decided it felt gross, and they missed being able to actually buff and enhance their teammates. I wonder if there's simply no ideal solution to the issue of players feeling caged by the ability to optimize their performance.

I think the heart of the problem is the combination of very rigid / meticulous internal rotations + rigid external timers, creating a situation where there's a lot of pressure to keep everything clockwork-aligned. That can feel very satisfying when you do it correctly, but it also puts a lot of clamps on what rotations can do without players beginning to protest or feel frustrated.

If you look at WOW, it's easier to respond to raid buffs because most of the rotations are very dissociated and reactive, without a strong overall structural loop like FFXIV implements. It makes the internal rotations far less satisfying to play (in my opinion), but it also makes raid buffs a lot less 'intrusive', in the sense that most classes can usually respond effectively even to 'surprise' raid buffs from uncoordinated uses, since you're not trying to capture that one perfect moment in time that FFXIV rotations are always seeking.