The old Summoner wasn't a summoner either. If you have a pet that moves about and just auto attacks or the current system fundamentally they are materially the same thing. Hollow. Lore wise our summons are only a glorified simulacrum in place of a carbuncle anyway.

I think going back to the old summoner is not the right thing to do. Its just going round in this never ending circle between dot focused or Pet focused. Neither is ever going to please everyone. Ultimately they need to leave it as it is and bring another dot focused class to fill the gap left by the original change. If you just reverse it, well just have another cycle of pet focussed wanting the current version of summoner back.

On paper the current design is a pretty good idea, the problem is that the rotation around it is not impactful, there is nothing to build to earn the demi summons, there is nothing to track and the kit revolves around too many instant casts. What it sorely needs is diversification and something to build towards the big attacks.

That said - even if we brought something like aethertrail back, unless its implemented properly it wont actually change anything. The job will still be shallow; therein lies the problem, its not that either designs were bad, its that they were flawed and the implementation of them left a lot to be desired and that includes the old era summoner.