Back in ARR I kept pushing for a branching role split for the remaining base classes that didn't have one to follow suit with arcanist/scholar/summoner. One of the branch suggestions I made was for lancer to branch into Templar which would use a 1 handed spear/pike + a tower shield and be tank role. IMO the branched job paths would have helped a bit with DF queues back then specifically for DPS jobs progressing the MSQ because they'd at least have an option to switch to a different role without leveling a separate second job. Branching progression is fairly common in MMO's along with a number of other types of single player games.