When people say "graphics aren't important", I wonder why they bother with new hardware.
This was, in the past, not only because of a graphical improvement, but the extra hardware allowed different kinds of games to be made. Star Fox couldn't be made on an NES, Mario 64 couldn't be made on the SNES, etc. Sadly nowadays consoles are already pretty powerful so it's little more than just a graphics boost, with maybe a little better physics or more objects on screen.
About Final Fantasy, i think VI and IX are the best in the series, although many tend to put VII on that spot.
That isn't really controversial, I completely agree.