Actually, I'd give FFTA the award for most balanced battle system of the tactical FFs. Both the original FFT and FFXII:RW had some rather annoying aspects to their gameplay. While people argue that the plot and character development of FFTA was inferior to the original, I think the gameplay had a more streamlined, easier to handle style.

Revenant Wings was ok, but the battles were very lopsided, and very one note. Some of them were so easy as to be not worth it, others were so difficult that you felt like breaking your DS. It followed right along the FFXII tradition of making fights difficult by letting enemies destroy your entire force with no chance of survival (most bosses in the last two chapters' quests/side-quests have an ability that instantly wipes out your entire Esper troop, no matter how fortified they are. That's poor game design). The missions offered little to no variety in their objectives. Sure, there's a couple "grab the food/minerals" quests, and at least one stealth based sneak through, but there were essentially all just gather as large a force together as you could, and rush through and hope you don't die. Then too, the rock-paper-scissors effect was broken as well. Flying units were generally more frail, and, since they're weak against ranged units, who can pick their targets and focus fire, they drop like flies and are generally completely useless (including your flying leaders). The EXP system is ridiculous, since healing incurs no EXP bonus the way dealing damage does, so Penelo winds up five to ten levels below everyone else even if you use her in every battle. The group dynamics are poorly executed, but I blame that on the game being for the DS, which is definitely not built for an RTS game.

And, wow, that rant was a lot longer than I meant for it to be. Revenant Wings was an ok game, but if they make another game in the same style and don't iron out the kinks, I will be rather upset.