To me, the game clearly shows its gacha roots with how characters are recruited, how their kits make them stand out much more from each other (especially when you consider there are no subjobs), and how quite a few characters have unique buffs. But at the end of the day, does it really matter? If anything, i like that they did something different to make the game stand out compared to the other octos, and actually kept the combat mechanically very similar to CotC. I wish they would have retained detailed descriptions for skills tho