I kind of like the fact they kept you on your toes, and it was nice to have something force a player to keep a Black/Red Mage around since I'm sure they were largely trying to offset how most people rolled pure Melee for FFI and II. It never really bothered me, especially since I tended to give everyone magic on the off chance I chose to switch someone to a mage, easier than having to rearrange magic, and helped when you had a class that was mostly melee but could use magic as well like Ranger and Magic Knight.