The 2 min meta just speaks to a larger problem, one that is equal parts developer and community made.

There are so many tick boxes every job needs to clear to be acceptable:

- Must deal X damage
- Must fit into 2 min buff windows
- Must not require any external influence, i.e. must be self-contained
- Must take x damage from mechanics
- Must be able to stun/interrupt/etc.
- Must have x amount of healing throughput

Every job needs to fit into these square holes so all fights work for every job evenly for everyone in DF and PF so noone gets the feelsbads, and this is the result. Healers feel this so acutely because while Tanks have basically the same defensive kits thrown into the randomiser, and DPS have unique ways to reach target X damage number, healers fundamentally all need to be able to do everything at this stage.

Healers all have shields, regens, % mits, oGCD single target heals, oGCD AOE heals, 1 spam single target attack, 1 spam aoe attack, 1 DoT. AST is the most unique, given it has actual nuance in its delay-based spell usage, and stands out as the most involved healer, but when you need to ensure there are no holes in a job's gameplay, you end up with husks of identity. I mapped out SCH and SGE's spells/actions back on launch and it was legitimately appalling how every part of SCH's kit was basicall just jumbled up into SGE's and packaged as a fresh job.

When you stifle creativity with arbitrary rules and restrictions (again, this is both dev and community made problems) then you end up with absolutely no space to innovate. I don't envy their jobs whatsoever, because there will be fallout no matter which way the pendulum goes, but I know there was a time when things weren't like this.