Awesome post. I am uncertain how much it will affect the design choices, sadly.

But I agree with OP. Players' familiarity with the game aside, what makes my DRG different from other DRGs? Character building/customization always should be part of the RPG experience.

The 30 stat points in an illusion and an uninteresting one at that. The ability to choose skills from different classes sounds great on paper, and works perfectly with one of the game's main selling points - single character all jobs. But in execution, rarely do we get something besides cooldowns or another DoT which really doesn't add much to the gameplay.

Yes I believe gameplay and choice is key at the end of the day. It is how we choose to interact with our characters to play the darn game. I wish to do more bursts, I wish to lean towards dots, I wish to apply more jumps (as a DRG I can't say much for other jobs). Sure it's just an increase in numbers and such, but we are given the chance to choose what we wish to do more of even if it is just to spam the same keys with slightly different rotations.

Adds flavor to individual jobs. And that's thinking small and doable. On a bigger scale... maybe even a fantasy, I'd wish to shoot a fireball once or twice, potent and viable, as a long cd on my DRG. (Or a large builtup heal on a Pally).