thanks, I just took a look over them for the first time!
it kills me that they apparently removed the spell callouts from the PSP version (I didn’t know this and it’s another reason to dislike it), and I have to say I’m very fond of the lowered JP costs and job level requirements in the original NA release (I tend to more or less speedrun the game when I play it and being able to count on your melee characters eventually getting enough JP to learn haste for a time magic secondary because your chemists and wizards will passively nudge them over lv. 2 for both classes is a very convenient mechanic that spares you having to dick around with melee characters as mages).
summons are overpowered in the original NA release but only if you figure out that you need to ignore everything after the first few which aren’t prohibitively slow and pair them with black mage stats and all the MA gear you can get in chapter 2, which is a relatively niche strategy (but still by far the easiest way to get through that part of the game dramatically underleveled). likewise, I don’t mind them having made velius and queklain easier – those are both “oh christ I need a break” battles for a first-time player, and they’re both fights that can easily go wrong if you don’t hit the boss as hard as you can ASAP. I’d much rather make adramelk, zalera, and chretien more difficult.