I agree that I feel FFXII was fine without Matsuno but I do feel the Ivalice games afterwards suffered a bit without his direction.

As for your continual vendetta against Sakeguchi

A quick look at sales shows that Mistwalker has been doing rather well for itself considering its new start up company and lacks the finances of stuff SE can pull out. Most of their games have actually done rather well with Blue Dragon doing great in Japan and Lost Odyssey doing well in the West.

Matsuno may go freelance but his talents are much different from the people you listed and it would probably be better for him to actually build his own studio or obtain his own group to go freelance with him which is why I feel Mistwalker might be a good deal for him for now. I get the feeling he is as welcomed at SE as Sakeguchi is.

It sucks his two most famous franchises are owned by Squenix. I'm still miffed by the fact I may never see Vagrant Story 2 now. Also, yes, he was one of the writers for Madworld. Most media concerning Matsuno states he's been really interested in the Wii.