From only skimming the posts I would agree with most of it. What we need to know from you is what you want out of the game.
You don't need to do everything like we have to enjoy or beat the game. You can easily beat it without magic and many of the good armors depending how you level.
Things you 'must' do that might be repeated by me. Get all the special characters at low level as possible. My personal was 13. Mog still joined at 15 so watch out.
That way you can equip Zoneseek and Tritoch early to get that high MagPwr. Or equip Odin early to get high speed. Speed and Magic are the only ones that technically need to be raised. I've never lost in a decade by neglecting the other two.
In this game you'll get over 9600 HP at level 99. And over 950 MP. Raising those in my version wasn't that important. I don't know how the HP/MP work in all versions.
Besides situations that only happen once in the game. Getting to the World of Ruin early is probably the most important aspect I can think of. After all this time.