Warning: wall of text ahead
OTHER WARNING: every time you find sag it should be wis. I may miss someone while editing
TL:DR the optimized cleric (which gets the best of dealing decent damage via melee attack while still being able to heal and cast supporting spells) after update 1.6 has 10 wis which I think can’t be intended and must be addressed.
Let’s say you want to make a cleric of a deity that mainly (expecially at low levels) offers you situational/weak/reactive domain powers but still, you likes the theme and go for it. That would be someone like Pharasma,Gozreh,Desna,Abadar,Cayden, just off the top of my head.
Let’s say you are human, because now human let’s you space among half-elves and half-orcs so with the same stat array we hit multiple races as flavor. At lvl 1 with whatever background you may need you basically obtain stats like 18 16 12 12 10 10. When making my characters I assume that if you are taking 10 in either cos or dex you are looking for troubles. If you make 10 in both troubles will 100% finds you.
Also let’s abolish an old consensus: in pf 2e healing IS action efficient. You use one action to heal pretty much 1.5-2 hits worth of hp to an adjacent target if you are using a max level heal spell to an adjacent target. So you are trading one of your actons for 2 actions from enemies. It is worth it. So having the “panic button” of max level heal spells during fights, it can make big a difference.
So we must decide what kind of cleric we want to do, choosing between the caster and the melee one.
The caster would have stats like (str des cos int wis car obviously) 10 16 12 10 18 12. Now let’s just observe that as per update 1.6 with this build you have 1 channel energy lvl 1-4 and at lvl 5 they arguably become 2. Then you go and prepare your spell and realize that your spell list is quite damage lacking (as divine spells will always be, e xpecially pre 4th level spells). Not only that but you don’t have slot cheating ability like drain focus, you don’t have a companion that does part of the dirty work for you, you don’t have at will buffing music. You just have your spell, your subpar domain powers, your wacky no damage anti action economy chill touch, oh and a lot of the choices you have when selecting feats are related to that channel energy ability that you will use 1xday till lvl 5, 2xday till lvl 10. Fun eh? And I forgot to mention that when you hit lvl 7/9 and you get those 2 sweet slots to unleash havoc via divine wrath/flamestrike you will soon realize that your better use one for a max level heal. So just one round of fun per day.
Ok maybe I don’t like this character.
Let’s do the melee one. As many knows magic melee weapons are the best way to deliver consistent damage and a cleric would have decent chances to be just slightly behind the curve(you can’t start in any way with str 18 because class skill is mandatory wisdom). The stats would be 16 12 12 10 18 10. And no you can’t put 14 in str and 12 in cha. Early on it would exactly like being constantly frightned/sick 2 compared to your ranger/monk/rouge buddy for example. With 16 you’re just sick 1. This, at a glance seems already a better build. Throw some ancestry/dedication feats in there and you are walking in heavy armor while hitting with a magical 2 handed weapon. Having a solid plan to deal damage also allows you to be more flexible when preparing spells. You can preare that 1 heal spell per spell level, 1 damage spell that come handy as ranged damage solution and 1 supportive spell of choice. Mmm, i’m liking it quite a bit (and it’s the build i’d go pre update). Only problem. You legit have no channel energy till lvl 4 and even then I would not put boosts in charisma, not until lvl 10. Imagine a cleric of Gorum which at lvl 4 may go channel smite for some whopping turns and wait… no channel energy for you bud.
Then you think. Wait a second, let’s assume I go for spells like bless, restoration, air walk, summon ecc that are not acually binded to my wis score. Can I accept my heals to heal 4 less hp and get extra uses of max level heal spells? Hell yeah, I can.
So, let’s mod a bit that melee cleric. Ok, the stats would be something like 16 12 12 10 12 16 (if you go goblin they may as well become 16 12 14 10 10 16 which are even better for what we want to do). We have a pc that is as effective as the one previously mentioned. You lose your domain powers but they were crap anyway and you better never try to counter an effect with a spell roll. Also your party is better find someone else to make those Treat Wounds checks. However this is easy to lay around because you can assist each other while Treating Wounds and also items can help. Moreover because of this use Medicine is one of the most important skill in the game and every member in the party should arguably have it (more Assists= more bonuses= more chances to crit the check= less waste of time).
So you have a decent melee fighter, which can neat you some fun, it has decent spell variety and 3-4 bonus max level heal spells for when the crap hits the fan. The only very big drawback is the lack of very effective ranged options when the need come but a returning trident and air walk should suffice.
So this is the tale of the update 1.6 goblin cleric with 10 wis. Just as planned.
Ah, also, high charisma let’s you go the demoralize/feint build if you want and it will often be a much better choice that that 3 rd attack.
Do 2-3 uses of channel energy make this big of a difference? Yes, in my opinion they does, expecially when you have 14 feats choices that have channel as requisite. Not quite elegant. There isn't this much of a reason to keep clerics bound to cha when this edition isn't MAD friendly at all.