Depends on if you want to play a hybrid class, or pure dps. Some people care nothing about healing and are happy to spend all of their days dpsing. Some people like to have the versatility, i.e. "I can fill the role of a dps or a healer in my ops group". With others, it's more like having a backup plan: "I can dps all I want to as an Operative, but if I ever get sick of dps, I can play as a healer."

I personally think that Columi/Rakata gear should be ops-exclusive. Columi is too easily obtained from Hard Mode flashpoints, making Story Mode operations practically useless. If anything, they should take out the Columi loot from all the other HM flashpoints and leave Lost Island the way it is. This would give some value back to the now useless Tionese gear and would give people a reason to do story mode operations (besides for weekly Black Hole Commendations) rather than farming HM flashpoints for Columi and going straight for the HM operations.