With Ballad and Refresh, is it worth it to keep your summon up?

[Rekiem]

Its the second time I see this today in a party. We had Bard, Red Mage and Summoner. This gives a 7MP/3sec regeneration to the SMN. But the guy was still only using his summons for the special ability and he would despawn them after. The tank was a Ninja so he we didnt had to do much healing. So Im wondering, is the cost still too high, even with Ballad and Refresh or is it just that the Avatar damage suck too much to keep the pet during the fight?

[Navia]

If the summoner mp holds steady leaving it out and you are constantly killing and chaining monster, then it would be ok. If you are having downtime waiting on the summoner because they are blowing all their mp to keep it out, then its a problem.
In my limited experience, some parties you can leave it out, others you can't because you backup heal and status cure more.
brd+rdm in the party gives summoner the best opportunity to leave summons out the most though.
My carbuncle hits harder than most rdm trying to melee :p so sometimes leaving him out is preferable to just healing, you just have to try it both ways with a party and see which is more efficient.