PCT is currently the most broken job that FFXIV has ever released, even more so than Shadowbringer’s SMN. However, it is really the two min meta that has shaped the game into what it is today.
source
FFXIV: The Greatest Dilemma of Job Balance
PCT is currently the most broken job that FFXIV has ever released, even more so than Shadowbringer’s SMN. However, it is really the two min meta that has shaped the game into what it is today.
source
This isn't complicated at all, as a DEV you keep the popular classes inline with what is most to least popular and only change up some skills to keep up the illusion of balance or trying to get balance but they never truely balance classes as that'd upset the population and their favorite classes
As much as I agree with you that I would prefer less focus on 2m meta, lets not pretend that all of the sudden that would make the top speed kill meta any more varied. You mention job synergy in the past, which while great, just meant that those jobs with synergy got locked into the meta. Going even further back into HW when we had damage types, and the job synergy then just mean you were locked into NIN/DRG/BRD/MCH, since DRG would passively buff itself and both PRange while NIN would passively buff itself and both tanks (Not to mention the other essential utility of HW NIN in regards to TP and aggro management but that's a different topic).
The point of a meta is just that, its a meta, and no matter how they design the game, people will always find the best comp and play that for speeds. There has rarely if ever been options here at the high end (and even then its usually just the one DPS who doesn't synergise can be swapped to a different greedy DPS if you want). Looking at your example of Edens Promise, most teams still locked SAM/DNC, and you could go either RDM/BLM for the caster (fuck SMN i guess) with a flex melee on the last slot since there was no synergy there. And thats not even looking at the supports where GNB/AST were basically perma locked for speeds. Short of removing all synergy and making every job the same damage and utility, it is functionally impossible for there to be a perfectly balanced game where every comp is just as competitive at the high end as any other.
That said, its all a moot point since SE has never shown a history of balancing the game around the speedkill meta (which lets be honest, is probably sub 1% of the total population, being a niche even among high end raiders which is a niche in and of itself). As you mention at the start, outside of speeds the game is actually pretty well balanced, and even the lower DPS jobs that don't make the cut for speeds still have their place in prog, which is an entirely different situation to balance around. Like RDM/SMN are great for prog due to their utility even if they are lower damage, and even in the tanks where DRK/GNB dominate the damage charts, PLD/WAR are a busted combo for prog with all the mit they bring to the table (and the short CD on Holm). Assuming you are able to meet the DPS check with the lower DPS jobs (which at least in DT has seemed doable so far) then it could be argued that you are borderline greifing prog by not bringing them, which is the opposite of the speed meta (not to say the speed meta is bad for prog, just that in prog optimizing for utility can often be more beneficial than optimizing for damage depending on the DPS requirements of the fight)