Does all that really matter?

It's ff2j.

Look, I give Guy and Frionel the best armor I can get. Heavy, I guess.
Knight armor on each, because I braved Mysidia at an early level (BRSK2 cast 5 times on Guy will enable him to kill a Gygas, and the bombs only doo 100 or so damage if they don't hit Maria after FIRE2. The rest is luck and constant resetting to make sure you don't run into ANY other type of enemies)

Heavy armor should increase strength, right?
You know the weapons. I don't cheat on them, so it isn't like Frionel is getting more attacks in.
I DO give Frionel 2 swords occasionally, and sometimes I give him a shield. Guy never has a shield. He always dual or single wields axes or clubs.
They both have Giant gauntlets.
Frionel has tons of White magic, at high levels, now, so he's got heavy soul.

And right now, w/ gauntlets, Frionel has 50 str to Guy having 40.
Frionel also has 54 Spirit.
Guy has 60 Vit because he gets hit most. he gets hit a ton. He's got 3 times the HP of Frionel. (ThisI also don't understand. OBVIOUSLY, Guy gets hit FAR FAR more often than Frionel. And the 4th member gets hit more than Frionel too.I mean, Frionel's at the front, what the heck?)