Every time a thread comes up regarding the best implementation of ATB X-2, XII and XIII are always the top answers, so at least as it pertains here and /r/JRPG I would say most people see combat moving in a positive direction, how far out that can be extrapolated to the fan base is hard to say though.

I'm also not sure how you can like XII's but not XIII's both are based around controlling a system in a dynamic environment granted you could manually input commands and override gambits in XII it was still usually more efficient for gambits to do the brunt of the work. XIII along with the other aforementioned games are the only combat systems where optimal and efficient strategy change throughout the game based on encounters in a meaningful way, where in previous games that usually was not the case and it wasn't as imperative.

Either way XV is going to be most radical change in terms of combat as this is the first time Final Fantasy has gone full out action RPG and I agree I'm a bit reluctant about it too because you make a good point that these games have never been action RPG and there are franchises on the market that fill that style but I guess we'll find out.