doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
HS is more or less a short rest for a spell slot. It doesn’t give abilities back, but also doesn’t cost HD.For a specific rule to trump a general rule there needs to actually be a specific rule in existence. You've made an assumption as to the purpose of healing spirit that doesn't line up with the general rule, any specific rule, or the devs who created the errata to demonstrate healing spirit is over-performing.
That still leaves healing spirit superior in every way to the very similar and higher level aura of vitality.
There's "above it's weight class" and "significantly outperforming every single similar spell in the game". The only healing spells that are worthwhile in comparison are heal, power word heal, and mass heal because they can heal points faster, but healing spirit is worth a lot more healing in the same slots. A 9th level slot is 280 hp per target (28 per turn) barring shenanigans.
Prayer of Healing heals 45hp per target in a 9th level slot. Clearly just a bit out of it's weight class.
Healing spirit looks like it meets your idea of power creep to me. And then some.
You need to click on the correct link within the sage advice doc. The errata is official.
A full short rest can be gained safely and secretly for the whole party with rope trick, or can be gained quickly for some of the party with catnap.
The numbers matter a lot more in combat, wherein actually healing most or all the party a significant amount with it will be harder.
And the errata barely reduces the number of heals that will actually happen in most cases, it mostly just increases what you have to keep track of.
It’s a change to satisfy people scared of power gamers.