I am ultimately fine with both, so I can definitely see the merits of a hybrid system. My first and second favorite Final Fantasy games are Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII respectfully, and both of those ultimately have characters who are not very unique in battle - aside from their Limit Breaks, everyone can learn the same things, but I also love and take inspiration from Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy X, and the characters are allowed to be more unique in those games.

I hope no one minds me mentioning it, but I still plan on creating my own RPG one day, and a hybrid system is ultimately what I am going for - I plan on having materia-ish items which you can learn your techniques from, but while there will be many that can be learned by all characters (the "magic" techniques are the prime example of this), there will be some that will teach a unique ability to specific characters, and at least some characters will have their own methods for learning new skills as well. Basically, I plan on it being a combination of the above examples' battle system with hopefully my own touch to it.