Some of these optional bosses are boring the heck out of me

[Wolf Kanno]

As you seem to keep missing, my point is that having both invincibility forces the player to play defensively in terms of strategy so it's not really any different from Mist Dragon's Mist mode, Ymir retracting into it's shell, or Guard Scorpion raising it's tail. In all three of those boss fights, you basically just healed up, buffed up, or sat there looking at it until it came out of invincibility.

While I can agree with Pete_for_President that there could have been more creative ways to implement this besides just saying "Hey I put up a physical paling, smurf you" chances are that the game was just too big to do all of that with the hardware at the time. The paling is at least an element in the story as we witness twice that humans use it to protect their cities so it's not just some lame super ability unique to monsters. Of anything, it's scary to realize that said monsters can generate these palings with their own power despite knowing it takes several humans using magicite as a medium to do it.

[ReloadPsi]

Mist Dragon's Mist mode, Ymir retracting into it's shell, or Guard Scorpion raising it's tail

Except none of those took anywhere near as long to wear off, plus those are what, one example per game? Ymir (Is that Whelk? I've only played the GBA version once.) retracts for one turn. Mist Dragon retracts for maybe two at the most (though it does sod all damage in its normal state so you don't even need to heal, plus the point of it was to teach players of this newfangled ATB system that up till now had never been in an FF game). Guard Scorpion's tail helps you grind your Limit Breaks earlier than usual so that one is actually beneficial! It's also worth noting that none of these enemies actually do anything during such turns; they wait to counterattack.

FF4 had its fair share of tactical bosses, sure, but there was always something to be doing because those tactical turns were usually just that: one turn. FF12 pulls this on you all the frakkin' time, does it for ages (i.e. I can attack much times/cast a very large amount of spells before it wears off) and it gets really old. Do you not think I'd be complaining about those examples as well if they were equally as egregious? Plus healing in FF12 isn't nearly as time-consuming as it is in many previous entries, so once you've had your defensive turn, there's plenty more nothing turns coming. Wel, unless there's a Defend command and I missed it completely.

It's still a waste of time, it's still boring, and I wouldn't mind if, as I say, there were no enemies that can do BOTH palings at the same time because being able to do a bitchin' Reflect/Aeroga combo instead of just attacking would be pretty kickass.

[Quindiana Jones]

I didn't have a problem with the invincibility. It forced me to shake up my traditional battling style and, when the enemy was completely invulnerable, it gave me a chance to withdraw and prepare myself for the next round. I also loved that the invulnerability was consistent with the laws set in the game; that was a really cool little addition.

That wyrm bastard in the desert annoyed the hell out of me, though. Immobilise is a real nuisance when you've no way to cure it!