I hate to say it, but this is nothing new for MMORPGs. For a while, WoW was the same way, and RIFT still is. Some DDO mechanics, too, and others I can't remember off the top of my head.
Bottom line: It's not easy to come up with original, non-redundant mechanics that force AoE and/or spot healing and don't make life more difficult for the melee DPS over the ranged DPS.
I haven't noticed it as badly here, because I main heals in SWTOR, but it'd be nice if some of the mob-centric AoE mechanics could be toned down slightly in favor of more challenging mechanics to keep ranged players on their toes. The last boss of the Heroic Black Hole quest is a pretty good mechanic, except that guy's so weak it's hardly a challenge for two decently-geared players.
The only one that REALLY sucks is G4-B3. Sunday night ran an ops with no ranged DPS, just because of who happened to be online at the time, and it's just a monster. Something needs to be done about that fight.