I agree with most of your points..

I also dislike if the game doesn't have a synopsis or the like and you forget where you are supposed to go next

Alright, some people should get their facts together. Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, etc, ARE NOT JRPGS. And some of those people are completely ignoring the sentence "don't post if you don't like JRPGS", because they're bashing them and saying that the only good "JRPGS" are the aforementioned ones.

On topic: Everything the topic creator listed can be annoying. I love JRPGS, but some design choices can be frustrating some times.

Probably what most bothers me, are the lead female characters. They're usually neglected to being healers with a staff, bland personality, no reason to be a love interest to the male lead after ten minutes of meeting, and they're just plain annoying.

Also, the cliche that "friendship can overcome it all" and "I can't beat your intergalactic, super powerful, huge sized ass because I have my group of friends with me, and I'll never give up!!".

Story / Setting

There's always some kind 'magical' world with all kinds of intrigue religiously, politically, ethnically -- but it all unfurls rather slowly. That, or you're a high school student. Many JRPGs try so hard to be ambitious on this front, that they fail to be interesting at all.

What about a JRPG about being a lumberjack? Or being an insect exterminator? There are a lot of other simple plotlines that could be really fun to enjoy as a JRPG.

All male characters.

SausageEscapism(tm)