Priests - The Utility Class?

I think I may have figured out what has been bothering me about the priest class.

We have moved away from healing as our #1 selling point and now our buffs (and debuffs in terms of shadow priests) have taken top slot.

Now, this isn't really a problem per se. I just have to get out of the mindset that the class I rolled for a specific purpose has a new role.

However the problem arises when the utility I can offer is already offered by another priest.

If BC is all about buffing damage output instead of healing damage input then they need to give us more ways to do so.