Well I see that they are trying to move away from that, but it's the players that stick to it even in FFXIV. They made the jobs extremely flexible at first, but everybody complained that there was nothing that set apart their chosen class.

So they started making them unique, now we are kinda back where we started in XI now aren't we? lol

It's just that when you think of Final Fantasy and you think of an MMO, you really have nothing but XI to reflect back on!
Do we need to move on sure, but boy do they scream and yell if they don't have their tank, Healer and Damage Dealer paradigm! lol
No white mages or black mages didn't fly very well either.

How ironic that sticking to what we know and love from playing past FF games would mold FFXIV into what it is now!
No, it's not that much different at all!