In KHI, yes. Aero and Thunder were the staples of my Heartless diet.

In KHII, not so much. I think I used Fire once while running through the game the first two times. Once I got into the post-game portion of power-leveling, AoE attacks helped, only because my Magic was high enough, and I had the third tier versions of each Magic.

Now, CoM on the other hand...