Bards are partially broken. Every 5th or so twist will get stuck and you'll have to perform a mini-spam to unstick the song. That, and the fact that of all the classes, they are by far and away the latest to blossom. Early on you're literally standing there with a song on and auto-attacking, that's entirely it. This, coupled with the -40% experience for being a hybrid really makes the class undesirable right now. If that wasn't enough, range on the songs right now seems to be broken as well, you have to be within 5 actual feet of the bard to receive the song affect, something I don't recall being the case before. Granted, it would appear Selo's has a larger affect, and rightly so.
Seems like I just bashed my own class
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] I have a necro I play when I need a change, so I understand the pet-class desirability.
And, as Xaxiyn (above) pointed out, a lot of players are leveling a pet class first as they are twice as fast, then turning around and farming to twink out one of the harder melee-types to play, making their 2nd go through quicker and more fun. I expect as more reach 50 we'll see bards, sk's, pal's and monks increase in numbers.