Let me get this straight, you willingly use gambits to their full potential, even though it may severely restrict your control over the characters...

On the other hand, there is an option to remove gambits, it may not necessarily make the game harder as it doesn't affect your character stats, or their development for that matter, thus can't be compared to junction and materia system (maybe armor and levels which have greater influence on difficulty), though it will give you the same experience, the same feel of control featured in earlier titles in franchise, which judging by several posts made by you is what you want, you know this, the game itself offers you this option yet you restrict yourself on purpose, and actually blame game for it ...you logic is mind bugling to say the least.