Hiya, entitled raider healer main from Entropy here (Hardcore FC with many world firsts).
I'll tell you what the actual culprit of the balance meta was: It was SE needlessly changing Balance (And bole) to 20%, case in point, notice my shift in opinion between above circa 2019 and below which was just before patch 3.4:
AST was 'fine' by 3.2-3.3, it just needed adjustments to get Noct to be competitive with SCH ( https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post3857974 ) and people to finally get over how much of a dumpster fire it was previously in 3.0.
Instead SE pulled the pin and wildly overtuned balance. Even Bole was a bonafide DPS gain in the right situation. 20% was absolute madness. It's no wonder people stuck to it like moths around a lamp.