Your arguments summed up are:
- Clothing bug
- A wrong interpertation of what stats matter (it wasn't ever main stat)
- Story content being too easy despite yourself figuring out the reason
RPGs are totally dead
Seriously you want something challenging? go do hard mode and nightmare mode operations.
Id claim the opposite, being forced a certain companion either due to role, ease of gearing or when said companion is recruited in the story has been removed.