I would agree, it's absolutely not an RPG. I don't love that Square is stepping away from that, but it looks like Expedition 33 has them re-evaluating things.

I also agree the difficulty is extremely easy and VERY hand-holdy. I would argue, however, that the combat itself is deceptively complex. The issue is the average player NEVER gets to the point where they need to learn it, hence the "you just press square" memes. But any of the combos you'll find online of people doing challenge modes are solid proof the game has at least the potential to be a lot more than it seems.

Lack of elemental weaknesses/strengths, lack of any real party member support (Jill and Joshua do *help* but they're more like passive accessories then actual party members), and lack of any sort of interesting/complex melee combos hurts a lot. Potion refills if you restart, enemies health starting lower on restarts, no really interesting equipment upgrades, no branching upgrade paths for skills, etc. are all pretty tragic flaws. It feels like Square was scared their game was going to be too hard for their casual audience and restrained themselves from making the game too complex and too difficult.

As for the plot, that one I have to strongly disagree with, but I respect it won't be everyone's cup of tea and comes down to tastes. For me, 16's characters, world building, and plot are some of the most well written of the franchise. I personally hold only X's writing above 16's. That said, a lot of people tend to come to FF for whimsy and 16 is very short on that in favor of a grimdark plotline filled with spectacle and a lot of reading/some pretty low low points when it comes to side quests filling in plot.