I call bunk on that damage variance thing purely affecting parsers.

I dislike parsers as much as the next player because they are usually quick to throw away a fight attempt even if it's salvageable because they're less interested in succeeding than putting their name on a scoreboard.

But, if everyone's buffs always align, damage variance DOES matter more. If you crit more in the spot where you deal more damage, that's amplified. If you don't, it's already been shown to affect things to the point that certain jobs had to change to fit so that they weren't unviable in current raids.

Hell, they even had to reduce LB variance because they designed a fight for the first time that required you to use many damaging ones in a short period of time such that you could get unlucky and not meet enrage purely because of that variance.

Burst and synchronization have always existed but they have a hell of a lot more impact now that every job is designed to contribute or capitalize off of it, and it certainly affects how the battles on the whole are designed. I think many reasonably dislike those changes.