This is a great review.
I don't care to get into debate as that time has passed. And I'm quite excited for LR like you.
I did like it quite a bit more than you. The only part I will comment on is the part you didn't play. The dungeon crawling on Pulse is a lot of fun imo, and actually requires the battlesystem to be used to it's full extent like the buffs/debuffs, poison, weaknesses, etc in order to actually beat the baddies, (This is where XIII-2 screws up the battle system in some respects).
The main game mostly doesn't require the use of this. However, I completely understand not wanting to even try. The fact that the main game doesn't take advantage of this is quite an issue. I wouldn't even guarantee that you'd like it.