just a reply to above (out of space)
I don't really recall people saying they wanted to remove noc stance? at least that's nothing i really heard at the time. I'm not saying they shouldn't have made sage either, I don't think the game would have much issues if we had 3 barrier healers and 2 pure healers... they will most likely add in another healer at some point. I personally really liked the idea behind ast having two different stances though I've never complained about it's barriers.

Funny thing is astro with barriers felt more unique to sage for me, SCH also has a lot of mits you're comparing apples to oranges here, I'm sure if you went through each healing kit theirs going to be some differences and advantages, but to me it doesn't really feel that different. Both are very built similar though and I think I'm more annoyed with how I thought sage was going to play as a "battle healer who heals by doing damage!" I think you could even make kardia more interactive (like buffing it to be aoe, buffing it to give barrier healing) obviously Soteria does this to a extent but they could build upon that identity.

Ast cards are actually pretty fun, I'd prefer some changes but I actually like it compared to just pressing a 120 buff window, I don't know where you'd get that for Monk? (it has a single raid buff?) It's also different in the fact white mage is a gcd healer and Ast is very dependent on their ogcds... I don't know I feel like astro is more unique to me.

I'm glad you enjoy sage even if it's not for me really, I much rather stick to astro or scholar (or any other job really, healer isn't my favourite design in this game despite me generally enjoying support roles way more in most other games).