You seem to not like the idea of using regular attacks a lot, but that's kind of the game isn't it?
Overall, yeah you hit X a lot in KH because it's the attack button, but you'll be punished enough on higher difficulties for just mindlessly hitting X that you need to be paying attention to when and where you're hitting X, and you'll be using some other abilities for their utility.
I don't see why it can't be more than that. They're like 50+ hour games each. Making combat a little more involved and a little more varied wouldn't hurt. Most abilities don't have utility, its just 30 different flavours of different gatoraide colored damage.
Magnet in kh2 is reasonably unique in that its a utility spell that actually provides utility (unlike stop which was a pain to use despite beign strong with gravita)
Yes on critical mode there is a foundation for a good game where you have to ocassionally dodge and count your hits before you hit the revenge counter, but it still barely goes on further than that and for the most part it is just spamming x, just less frequently.
The best fight in kh2 (imo) is xaldin because its the only fight in the game that's more than just mashing X against a bullet sponge where playing it right rewards you with a quick kill and there's actual variety between attacking defending, parrying and reading.
A mix between that, the command deck and the command styles would result in a way more varied game with gameplay that can hold up on its own instead of just being a vehicle for the story.
The problem with BBS is that regular attacks feel like shit. You don't want to just be mashing X because your combos feel awkward and you're often left in vulnerable positions. But most of the command abilities are also awkward to string together and leave you in vulnerable positions. So the best option is to spam abilities like Thunder Surge that do good, consistent damage while giving you plenty of iframes. You have "options" sure in that there's plenty of commands, but you have only a few on-hand at a time so you might as well choose only the best to make it count, and the best are braindead to use. You have "options" in basic combos, command styles, and shotlocks, but they're completely superfluous most of the time compared to what the best command abilities can do.
And Command Styles kind of suck. I guess "escalating action" is one way to look at it. Another way is the game interrupts what I'm doing to give me some other shit that isn't any better most of the time than my shitty basic combos. The only good one I want to actually see and use is Rhythm Mixer.
Even if you hate BBS are you really gonna claim that wingblade isn't better than the default combos? Tier 1 styles werent' that impressive, but the tier 3 ones were all pretty strong and fun to use.
Using your command decks to unlock the tier 3 style that gives you a few seconds of godmode is pretty rewarding and gives combat a reasonable flow with risk and reward.
Hell, you don't even argue that BBS's mechanics like command styles and the deck are inherently worse than default kingdom hearts, you just dislike that they were sometimes unbalanced.
I didn't address that because it's not really an issue, or at least it's a matter of perspective. I don't think there's any real issue with Drive Forms being something you can't use all the time. Though I would make the Drive gauge fill up faster or easier between fights so there's more reason to mess around with them more often. I always feel like they're too precious to use up and tend to never use them except against optional bosses.
Wouldn't you consider that imbalance an issue? Presumably if its a fun and useful mechanic you want the players to engage with it constantly instead of being afraid to touch it because its too strong and charges too slow. ESPECIALLY considering how insanely grindy they are to level which implies you're supposed to be using them constantly.
I know because I grinded valor, wisdom and limit to max. Gave up on master and didn't even bother with final. To level these things normaly you're supposed to be literally using them off cooldown.
I mean fucking hell, there's ALREADY a solution for this, its called command styles. Valor and Wisdom can be T1, Limit and Master T2, and Final T3.