Time to defend Robin Williams a little.

This point could go either way, but he doesn't just take orphans. Zell is a student at Balamb, and he has an adopted mother. So it's highly likely that Gardens are seen as - and heck, they even appear to be - the only or primary source of education. Galbadia's Garden is a straight up academy that leads into its army, so I can't see it being too different from modern day academies like that. So if these institutions are the closest we have to schools, then it's likely they teach more than just how to fight - I'm not saying a lot more, and combat is obviously on the curriculum whether you want it or not, but there you go.

I'd also dare to use your initial point against you: he takes orphaned kids with no place to go and gives them somewhere, as well as people to be there with. That's... a pretty nice thing, all things considered. They're given friends and teachers and can develop relationships. I know the GF thing is kind of a dick move, but it's necessary as well. I would have liked to see GFs used more by SeeD and less by cadets - the length of time they'd have to had been using GFs to forget their goddamn childhood is outrageous - but them's the breaks, I guess.

SeeDs who go off to fight in non-sorceress related battles are not wasted. What else are they going to do? Do you have SeeD sit around for 5, 10, 15 years waiting for events to kick into motion? Fat lot of good they'll do against a powerful timetravelling sorceress if they've got no real life battle experience and they're using smurfing T-Rexaur as the only means to stay "battle ready." Those SeeD are out there getting the skills they need to survive an even harder battle, and they're making some money so that the school can stay operating. I mean trout, how do you think they afford all those goddamn hotdogs?

Can't fault your last point though. NORG is a .