Scholar Lore issues..?

[Cleretic]

ff3 white mage had aero/ga and devout tornado, it's not a terribly recent addition.

If referring to specifically ff1, monk/pugilist don't have enormous hp pools/unquestionably highest damage and black mage doesn't have any utility e.g. haste.

I was talking about 'their overall image and reputation, across all games'. Outside of XIV, white mage has only used Aero once, in FF3; after that point Aero becomes a blue mage staple, and hasn't been native to a white mage skillset since (outside of Bravely Default, but even that gave it to red mage in BD2). Stone is even less represented, that's never been in a white mage kit; water doesn't even have a consistent lineup of spells across the franchise, and when it turns up it's usually blue or black magic.