The consensus on blue is that red doesn't have enough players for a consensus. I'm willing to believe it though, but then paladins are different in pvp where I imagine fights can go sideways quicker and player character "adds" can't just lock onto you the way a mob can. There are places to hide, creative ways in which to buy time, which is key to this argument.
Mana is what you potentially have at your disposal; health is what you actually have. Your mana bar allows for more options, which is attractive, but it can't be depleted as quickly as your health bar. If everything in camp is under control, save for the occasional hiccup, mana is better.
There is some truth to your argument, but again, it does not factor in the time required to cast, with mobs that know your precise loc. Heals require a fair amount of uninterrupted time. Lifetaps are even worse, taking longer to cast and having a decent chance of being resisted, partially if not outright.
I can remember having to duck a lifetap in order to death peace instead because the cast time meant taking more damage than the lifetap would take back, if it even landed. I can remember using the quested fast-cast lifetap only to have it resisted, followed by death. Heals are more reliable, but then paladins don't have access to fsi. That isn't to say lifetaps and self heals haven't bought time for a late torpor/cheal, but they required time which created more risk than using divine aura or feign death and letting a monk offtank momentarily.
Knights have some very useful spells, but nothing so amazing to where I would rather have a complete mana clicky versus a complete heal clicky. There just isn't the same "oh shit" moment that arises when a hybrid tells the group "oom" as when the cleric or enchanter says that. What happens when I'm oom as a paladin/sk? The necromancer coughs up some of their mana.
Mana is potential but it's wasted if you don't create enough distance or don't have enough time to use it. If you're blind, you aren't casting anything that isn't hotkeyed and even that will be inefficient. If root breaks/resists repeatedly, on a significant train, you're dead with mana to spare. If you're being summoned, your mana really isn't going to save you. If the enchanter is dying to adds, you can heal/root/stun all you want but they only have so much rune/health so it's more about your reaction time and their skill/resist rate. Best bet is to aggro their charm hasted pet and try to survive the onslaught (and good luck getting more than one heal off on yourself). A deeper mana pool isn't going to save the enchanter, loh however will. Again, an instant spell effect that can be clicked or "cast" while moving is what swings most fights. If the enchanter dies, you can rez them and duel for theft of thought and you'll still have enough mana to continue tanking and, if not, there's always dw bracer.
Feign death? Until death peace enters the spellbar, that's your one chance at survival; if and when it fails, you will be wishing you had more hitpoints because the incoming mobs will destroy you before you can recast it (though 60 extra hitpoints usually aren't enough). "So just back against a wall and lifetap them in the meantime." Assuming you'll have mana to feign after, that still assumes lifetap will land in time and that it won't be resisted. Might as well just keep an Ivandyr's Hoop in your bags in that case. Those lifetaps equate to how much int overall? And they're instantaneous. That will swing a fight far more than the last drop of mana in your pool.
If it is really all about mana, than no one should ever roll a half elf paladin because it isn't min/max. By the same argument, no one should ever roll a ranger anything...except when they want to prove people wrong / play in hardcore mode.
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