Lol. FF has always been one of the most casual JRPG franchises on the planet and that's partly why it's so much more popular than your Shin Megami Tensei's etc. You can play most FFs through with just choosing the Attack command 99,9% of the time (with some skills making the games even easier, if you bothered to use them).
And there's party management, customization & strategy in action RPG combat. I'm not super-happy about you having no direct control over the other party members, but these action RPG systems can still create fucktons of strategic situations. What weapons are the most efficient to use against particular enemies, which enemies should you focus on first when you're ganged up on, when do you attack and when to get as far away from the enemy as possible, how do you position yourself in relation to the bigger enemies (do you attack them from behind? Their legs? Their head? Torso?), is there cover you can get behind to shield yourself from gun-fire, fire spells and crap, should you use magic or conserve MP for the dodging mechanic, HP & MP management in general; when to heal and when to push on attacking etc. etc. A single battle against a big monster + a group of smaller enemies like a behemoth + soldiers could have fuckton more strategy than most battles in past FFs put together ("Choose Attack -> Choose Attack -> Choose Fire Spell against an ice enemy -> Choose Attack - > Choose Attack -> Choose Attack -> Cura All -> Choose Attack -> Choose Attack").
