that people complain FFVIII "made" you do anything. it really didn't -- like you said, you could go the old-school route of power-leveling, maxing out stats with GF bonuses and stacking 100 Ultimas/Meteor/Full-Life/Triples. but with appropriate-leveled enemies, as well.

or you could just play cards and mod them into what you needed, never having to draw or spend time leveling if you just preferred going through the story.

I play RPGs more for the "experience" than the mechanics, so the latter option was right for me. but I think it's odd that the people who complain the game was too broken, are the same people who deride "linear" RPGs. nobody made you mod cards. you could spend every battle summoning, if you want.