ManaKhe

It's a mixture of people not wanting to micromanage their stat level ups while they level(even if it's unnecessary, perfectionist tendencies in gaming haha) and wanting stats to be meaningful. I'd personally be all for completely removing stat gains based on levels and just having it attached to gear instead of the other way around, more customization for stats later on. I don't know which way would be easier though. I'd just go with the easier option. It's just bad game design really. Also I like your Eiko idea as well. They are just almost the exact same currently. Move Holy to Garnet, nerf Madeen and go from there adding support abilities.

Idk if all of these suggestions fit in the scope of what you are doing right now but they are my main gripes with FF9: 1)Rebalance difficulty. The party can just do way too much damage and then laugh with regen. I'd prefer a more balanced difficulty, not a hard type. 2)Speed up battles. They are way too slow. If I remember right battles are default at 15 FPS? I've used Memoria Engine to modify the battle speed and I think 24 FPS was about what I preferred for battles(didn't look silly how fast they were moving but it wasn't too slow). 3)nATB from FF6 BNW and make speed matter. I hate ATB that doesn't stop when actions are being taken. They figured this out with Chrono Trigger for Christ's sake. 4)Differentiate Eiko and Garnet(Dagger). The idea I had was to make Eiko a Red Mage(she already has the clothes for it really) and less focused on Summons(nerf her last summon). I'd also like for summon power to be separated from gems and just function like a normal spell. Also default as fastest cast animation. Also make healing more necessary(this would go along with increased difficulty). 5)Rework how Quina learns Blue Magic. I love Blue Magic in games but I always feel like its way too annoying to get the spells. Just make it easier I guess. This might just be personal preference lol. 6)Remove stats from leveling being based on equipment/remove stat growth entirely(each character has base stats, then just gets stats from equipment). I'd prefer the first but that seems like it would be difficult. I'm sure a lot of these would be more for future plans haha.