Imo, it boils down to the job design team obsessing over making jobs appeal to players who don't like them. Whether it's intentional "everything has to appeal to everybody" blandness or just the result of entrusting 19 jobs to like 4 people, I dunno. Apply Hanlon's Razor as you see fit.

Beyond SAM, we've had SMN and MCH gutted multiple times, we've had DRK forced into new identities a few times, PLD recently got changed hard, BRD is shafted pretty regularly, NIN's entire world was flipped upside down with mudra changes. And god, poor Astro (and more broadly, healers in general). Some of the changes were broadly accepted, some contested, but almost none achieved their goal of giving mass appeal to jobs from people who disliked them previously. At best it got a few Andies to play them in roulettes more but most stick to their main unless there's a strong meta reason to switch.

Not that that will stop SE though. DRG and AST are probably gonna end up butchered too come 7.0, as well as them finishing whatever hatchet job they started on SAM. God only knows what redesign MCH will undergo for Dawntrail too, since every expansion they seem to get stuff rolled around.