K' this is pointless, but to explain the high summoner problem, maybe in addition to all the other methods described elsewhere, what about simply Sin being turned away? In operation Mi'ihen, they used sinspawn to draw sin. Thsi could mean they have been used before. In 1000 years, someone must have figured it out? Or maybe Summoners could (without the final summoning) damage Sin enough to make it leave a certain area alone, to distract it like the Kilika sailors try to do. This could minimize the amount of damage caused. Also, Yu Yevon (in the beginning) may have had some control over Sin, and not yet have been imersed fully to summoning. Feel free to rip this idea apart.