Black mage was my second job to 75. Doesn't sound like much, but when I leveled a job, I didn't take it to 75 unless I could beat Maat on it. One thing about the Maat fights back in 2004-2005, is that they taught a player how to play their job. Hence why the Rdm Maat fight was arguably the hardest BCNM in the game, because leveling Rdm to 70 never did any of that.
Other jobs were different. Everyone learned their jobs as they leveled. Black Mage was no different. If you were a Black Mage, invited to an experience point party, you were expected to Magic Burst. Kicked, in fact, if you couldn't.
In today's ffxi, Blm's go into Abyssea and Voidwatch and free-nuke, without any care whatsoever.Pre-cast, hmp -enmity, mdt, pdt and MB sets were thing of the past. Idle sets in today's ffxi are interpreted as funny cosmetic gear.
Not to minimize the importance of maximizing your nuke damage, there's alot more to being a blm than that. Blm was always meant to be used in a team environment. Working with others. SE's worked recently to restablish that by enforcing the need to Magic Burst in Legion, and with Meteor and Comet.