Excellent post. It's because of threads like this that I prefer to have my FF discussion here, and not the RPG: Squaresoft board on Gamefaqs.

To answer your question as to why some people consider FFI a better game than FFX: My view is that gamers and critics have the perception that the bar is constantly being raised, and games have to be judged accordingly.

We're obviously going to see much higher quality games today than we have seen in the past. Hell, there's a rumor floating around that Ed Boon and Tobias created Mortal Kombat in their garage. Today it takes a team of what, a 100 people to produce a genuinely good game. The way of looking at it is yes, the quality is increasing, but the standard of what constitutes as a good game is also increasing.

I'm going to attempt an example, and it may not work as intended because it's a spur of the moment thought, but think of it this way: If you have 10 bucks pocket change, and you want to have fun on a Friday night with your friends, you'll find a way. Maybe you'll go see a movie. Do that every Friday for a month or so. Say you have 50 bucks to spend every Friday with your friends the next month, and 100 dollars to spend the month after that. At first it may seem better, but after a while, the capacity for enjoyment will level out, and you'll have already set a new standard for enjoyment without yourself even knowing it. Such is the game industry today. We're not having more fun than we did in the 8 bit days, but rather, the necessary qualities a game must possess to become the same amount of fun has increased.