I'd say that I have died way many more times than I have in any other Final Fantasy game. You really have to think, adjusting your gambits for every situation (though I find some of the options for gambits at the moment not quite accomadating to what I want to do). The battle system is not that hard to get used to. I think some of the complaints are from people who love the turn-based-system too much. To say putting it in "Wait mode" is like playing old school, that is not quite right. It still can be hard at times keeping track off everything, especially when your team goes off to the side and engages into battles on their own. So yeah. I think I need to be more efficient with gambits though.

Anyways, what I want to say in summary is that the game controls themselves are not that hard, but the game play can be. Strategy becomes more important. Also the Liscense Board at first is cumbersome since you did not know its full breathd of capacity, thus early on I found myself unfocused when using it, now I find it much more effective, and I adjust my characters abilities according to what I need. (Right now, I am trying to make Balthier acquire some Red, Green and White magic just so he can buff, debuff and heal status effects while I'll keep Fran and Vaan as my main healers.

EDIT: I agree that at times there arises the need to do sidequests/events just to level or gain gil or LP before you can move on with the main plot.