Was BLM not enough?

[Arrius]

I don't have a dog in this race due to not playing either GNB or RDM, but I'm reading in reddit's FFXIV discussion that this RDM change may have originated from actual JP complaints about having to get into melee range at all on RDM?

If that's the case, that would certainly explain a lot.

Certain Raid fights were problematic for Red Mages due to the punishment of being in melee in the burst phase.
However, its still a bit of a shaky argument to tune it all for only a few fights.