Total party healing for both bard and musket are split between the whole party. The total HPS column shows single target heals.
Regarding regular and consistent burst heals, that’s why I mentioned Encore being changed. It would cut down crescendo times significantly, and with Upbeat working that would drop another second of downtime. Those burst heals aren’t the main source of healing for either class though. End game musket relies heavily on shield and renew, and saves Cure for dire moments. Bard is the same way, relying on Warrior Provoke heals/Paladin DR and your heal over time to do most of the healing, and using your crescendos for when tank drops to low health.
You can certainly function and succeed as a Bard at any level of the game. Every dungeon boss has been healed at the highest level of shards with Bards as healers, and I’ve run Bard as a healer in hard mode raids (like, once or twice, but the group I run with has Bard healer as the main source of healing even when I’m not doing it). There’s always going to be a meta, and everything else will be sub optimal. Right now it’s Runemage and Musketeer. Yet we still play Ranger and Scoundrel, and have Bards healing. EVERY class is viable at every level of the game. Yes, Bard should be looked at to revamp numbers. No, I don’t think it should be equivalent to Musketeer. I know I’m not going to change your mind on that, but it doesn’t matter what either of us thinks. That decision is up to the devs and the devs alone. If you have a suggestion on how to make Bard better, definitely come up with ideas and post them. Run the numbers, or PM me if you want me to run them for you and we’ll see what happens. The best way to get changes is to run tests, post numbers, and explain why you want the change you do. I’m 100% willing to work with anybody on that.