Gauge Management is Fun, Actually

[Myon88]

Take RDM for example. In the past, the base function of Manafication was to add 50 Mana to both the Black and White gauges.

I think it's worth noting that wasn't even the original function of manafication either. In even earlier points in the job's lifespan, it worked by doubling your mana levels across the board.

The reason it was changed was twofold, first people complained it made the opener unusually slow to ramp up (since you first needed to build up enough mana to be worth doubling), and secondly because it was a big failure point for less experienced players. You could brick your mana bar quite badly if you used it with uneven mana levels (20/40 becomes 40/80 taking a long time to fix).

So you have a skill that was originally designed in a flavourful way to match a specific job identity, then it got homogenized into a generic gain 50 gauge skill that half the jobs in the game have a carbon copy of. And eventually even that level of abstraction wasn't enough and they went about sanding off even more rough edges. Which basically sums up their approach to job design from Stormblood onward.

[Valence]

I agree, but for some job it was simply necessary to grants these "ready to" buff.
MCH is an example where you simply had too much gauge at your 2 minutes and was forced to delay Barrel Stabilizer or overcap.

It wasn't a "possible failure" it was a "forced failure". On the other hand, GNB works perfectly fine with the current Bloodfest. I doubt VPR would work if it gave the job 50 gauge.
RPR, I don't think it was necessary as the implied rotation already required you to spend your gauge before Plentiful Harvest.

In short it depends from job to job.

There was some voodoo tech you could do to delay the burst hypercharge by one GCD so it would fall behind stabilizer, or on the other hand delay stabilizer by one as you said to adjust to unsolvable heat plans which happened at specific points in the rotation. It was possible to move and re arrange where WF, Stabilizer and HC stood within the burst but it had its limits and could only be done a specific amount of times before throwing everything into drifting.

I understand that in a way it was a smart way to juggle with your tools to dodge the problem, but the problem wasn't baked into the class design and it felt like a clever but limited band aid you could use to dodge it until it stopped being dodgeable.

Like Myon said if we have had other spenders than HC, like the old Cooldown (SB Heat Blast), spending like 20-25 gauge for it, it could probably have allowed to readjust heat with one GCD instead of cumbersome Hypercharges that could not fit absolutely everywhere before a burst. That would have been some gauge management, something that DNC has been able to do for an extent for example with Sabre Dance before a burst. Not gonna lie, something like FT (on the GCD like today) spending 10 heat per tick to readjust your gauge with good damage benefits before a burst could also have been fun... maybe?

I agree with the sentiment but gauges have never really been that interesting or fun on most jobs. WAR having an actual stat on its gauge was interesting, multiple smaller increment spenders were fun.

SB MCH Heat gauge was a unique and interesting gauge mechanic and I do feel that all gauges should strive to model creative things like this one did. It was all about managing heat, staying above 50, but not reaching 100 until you were ready to do it for burst. Depending on the rotation chosen and the fight uptime where downtime could change the whole heat plan, you'd have to use (or not) tools to keep your heat in check in order not to overheat early and throw everything out for a loop.
Most gauges today are either a resource spender on a scale of 100 (Kenki, Ninki, Rage, Fairy, Soul, etc), or an UI sticker counter (Feather Fans, AST cards, SAM Iajutsu, etc). It's a bit unfortunate, and perhaps that they also contribute heavily to job homogenization.