I don't think its that weird to say, unless your metric for "a good class" is one that is "capable of getting to high ranks". To which I would then say your metric is oddly narrow. After all, there really hasn't been a spec in the last four years that was downright impossible to bring to Gladiator, when played by the best players in the world.

You're once again ignoring the fact that we're not speaking of an R1 player getting gladiator, we're speaking of an R1 player getting an R1 equivalent rating.

So "should I avoid rerolling to FOTM" is kind of like asking "should I learn how to run Track with better shoes" which the answer typically is yes, you'd want to use the best shoes

That comparison is plain stupid. You don't have to relearn how to run when you switch shoes, whereas you have to relearn a lot of things when you switch classes. There's an actual cost involved in switching classes unlike when switching shoes.

And saying "but Vanguards plays nonmeta specs" is like saying "but Usain Bolt can run track barefoot" in said analogy. Its clearly easier to run track with shoes, and using an exceptional athlete who breaks the norm is not really appropriate to present as evidence for your argument.

If Usain Bolt could win an Olympic race barefoot, then it wouldn't be large enough of a disadvantage that your average amateur couldn't also win a local race barefoot. Obviously, you still shouldn't do it because investing in shoes comes with relatively negligible costs, unlike investing in learning to play a new class.

Which are all valid points and helped contribute to why it was FOTM for the first month or so. And then the other healing classes all got buffed so it narrowed that gap.

That doesn't change that it's a scenario that isn't applicable to any other class in the game.