"Aerith is weak in battle" they said.

I recently started a play through and am using Aerith more than I had in the past. I'm loving Fury Brand :)

The reason I said she was weak is when I used a gameshark to revive her. She never will hit physically what other players can. Her weapon is the problem for this. Even with 255 stats she doesn't always hit 9999. The only thing she is good for is limit breaks.

even with 255 stats, no one always hits for 9999. That's something you get from the ultimate weapons special effects. Try equipping cloud with anything except the ultima weapon, he won't hit 9999 every time either, unless he crits.