Overall, the life bar is not that important to me. What drove me nuts when I was playing through the series again was the games where they left off your max HP. I always had to mentally keep track of what their max was to know what cure spell to use. Even with a lifebar, you still have to calculate that shit unless there is a visible total... otherwise you're wasting MP. If it means dropping the life bar so I can have CURRENT/MAX then go for it.