It depended upon the situation. While many of the story characters were grossly overpowered, I attempted to utilize them as little as possible, but without letting them fall completely by the wayside. Various characters are necessary not only for the story to progress, but you could actually miss entire things in the games if you didn't have certain people at certain zones.
That said, I still tried to recruit characters with optimal star signs, starting Brave and Faith scores based on what class I designed for them to eventually partake, and gender based on stat growth accordingly. Sometimes, I like to min-max to get the most out of my hires!!
As far as party CONSTRUCTION goes... I typically enjoy Ramza as a Dragoon, so toss a knight, archer/gunner, time mage (sub black mage!) and a white mage in... solid build.
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