In a way I understand, but at the same time there are still things lost in these "evolutions" that I and many other people aren't a fan of. There's something special about full party control, and none of these advancements have done it. It's all either handing things off to an AI or giving a vague means of directing their actions ala paradigms. 12 is closer mechanically if you ignore gambits, but it still doesn't feel like an advancement of ATB and more follows the design mindset of an MMO.
There has to be a way to maintain party control while still advancing things. The last real one we got is ATB 2.0 back with X-2. To me, anything else is a completely different beast.
And what about the amount of options in battle? Even when controlling a single character, no frantic ARPG has or would be able to pull off the many actions you can take with materia, and mapping them to face buttons sure as hell wouldn't be a solution.
These issues need to be addressed or we're going to lose a very special style of play that's been on the decline for over a decade. As you say, the possibilities are endless, and I've thought about many ways things can be advanced without abandoning the things I want. Minor positioning aspects, dynamic camera angles, background fighting that is purely there for aesthetic purposes and not actually affecting the battle, etc. AI controlled characters and less options will never be part of my vision, and it shouldn't be something people that want to preserve a genre should accept either.