This is interesting because I envisioned the ele filling the mid-range role. Their skills seemed, to me, more conducive to an active role in the combat, though obviously some distance must be kept. Given how there are a bevy of condition dropping defensive skills compared to just one skill dedicated to healing followed by ground target HoTs, I theorized that raw damage output will be preferable to degen based damage.
In fact, I don't intend on pursuing a burn based build much for this reason. All fire traits will be geared towards damage, with control being my primary use of conditions.
Eles always have byproducts with their casts. Ice = snare, fire = burn, air = blind, earth = defense/wards, etc... They are conditions but I was more referencing degen conditions, not byproducts. Necros have skills that only apply conditions without the DPS. When conditions are not impacting when weighed against high frequency DPS? They are pretty much a waste of time.
The higher importance for the eles in range battles is mixing up your elements. You don't have to pay attention too much to your conditions when they are byproducts and you have elemental priority. Basically, you make a build and your priority is air conditions, such as blinds. You have one other teammate in the sub-group you are running who is doing the same. One could be prioritize melee blinds while the other shuts down ranged attackers, such as rangers. You won't match the DPS of say the eles on fire/burning duty but you are playing an important utility role. If you find your team DPS is too low, you shift your priorities and maybe your warrior/thief compatriots. Same goes with skills, gear, positioning, etc... Eventually you'll start to get close to a setup that is effective. But it takes months to tweak it to a polished build. Nefs also come and you have to lose/pocket the build.
However, it is extremely rare to have all elements being effective for a ranged meta. So you might have just a group of fire/air split and maybe an ice for snares, etc... Also, ranged is ranged. Whether eles are close the front line for earth drops, mid-line to be in position for air utility with blinds/disruptions, or far away ice spammers. Eles are never just long distance attackers. So when I say ranged, it means non-melee.
I don't want to go into too much theory since the effectiveness in GW2 can be a much different variation. But it typically goes in that direction.