Part of the "ranged tax" is that physical ranged jobs are supposed to have mobility as well as utility spells to make up for the lower damage, playing as a support/DPS.

Of course, machinist currently offers no unique utility (their only non-role utility is Tactician, which might as well be a role skill since it's functionally identical to Shield Samba and Troubador), while also having the worst damage, but that's another problem.