Personally I'm not a huge fan of the 13/7R action gauge.
I know how you're supposed to play the game to make it fill quickly, yes, but it feels a bit too restrictive to me. I think the formula could do with some tweaks and overall falls short of both 12 and 16 in terms of what it tries to achieve gameplay-wise.
That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if a FF16 'Ultimate Edition' includes if not playable party members but at least something like gambits/commands.