it's true for most players for most of the game. In the end, they'll converge to the same in ffx, which is in my opinion a bit boring. Until then, however, there is a myriad of ways to play ffx. You could say the same about stat-maxing in most of the games. that doesn't mean the games don't require planning or thinking to achieve usable results though most of the game. In FF13, the game pretty much thinks for you almost the entire game, both in battle and outside of battle.

To answer your question, no, "press x to get stronger" isn't how ff5, 6, tactics, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10-2 11 or 12 does it. Even 13-2 improved in that regard over its predecessor.