You are basically complaining just for the sake of complaining.

In the other Final Fantasy games, you never had "Full" control over your characters. The ATB system took that away, as you had to wait and just sit there until the gauge filled up and allowed you to pick your attack. In Final Fantasy XII, you can move around, plan for your next attack, etc. That is FAR more control than any other Final Fantasy game provided you with (barring Final Fantasy XI, never played it).

The battle system, menus included, was designed for either amount of game play. That you complaing about having to push the X button and then cycle through is ludicrous. In the other games, you had to wait for the menu to come up and then cycle through if you didn't want to attack with that specific character yet. Same stuff, different game.

Also: When hasn't a Final Fantasy game amounted to "hey just attack things if you are a high level. They'll die." I've had multiple game overs just from making mistakes because I didn't think ahead.

If you don't like gambits, turn them off. They are there to make it easier on the player. But they do not eliminate the difficulty completely.